Black Cats and Orange Skies
by CheshireinUnderland
Summary: In which Tsuna's older sister is a bored, apathetic, ancient daiyōkai with an army, the mafia is horribly underprepared and shit goes down. What else is new? (Should it be in the crossover section? Yes. But the traffic that goes through there is non-existent. This is a rewrite of my first ever completed story.)
1. The Beginning

_Quick disclaimer! I own nothing except any OCs that may feature in this story. If you were a reader of the original Black Cats and Orange Skies, you will know that there were a few!_

* * *

She was old.

Old enough to remember a time where humanity was ruled more by instincts than politics, old enough to remember when humans weren't such arrogant creatures and actually understood that they weren't at the top of the food chain, though granted they had always been arrogant, old enough to remember when yōkai were commonplace and not hidden.

Sometimes, she hated her immortality.

Time dulled all memories, made them fuzzy and unclear. It messed up the details, made you believe what wasn't true.

She still remembered, despite all the time that had past.

She remembered back when she had first been born, the eldest daughter of a panther yōkai and an elemental yōkai, an odd pairing considering they rarely mated outside of their respective clans. She remembered how her own family feared her after she set her room on fire and wondered whether she had always been meant to become what she had become, she remembered how she detached herself from her emotions and family, remembered how she didn't care that her family was killed by soldiers, remembered the looks on the soldiers faces as they were burned alive.

After her family had died and been buried and left to turn into food for the earth, she had become a wandering mercenary. Centuries had flown past and she was given the title of Kurenai no majo, Red witch. Eventually on her travels, she had met a yōkai sword smith by the name of Tōtōsai and commissioned him to make her a sword from one of her claws. He had done as she had asked but he had also warned her that the blade had a lust for blood that stemmed from her own. As such, she had named the blade Ketsueki Sakenomi, Blood Drinker.

A few more centuries had gone past before she eventually ran into an odd group of travellers. Curiosity, she mused later on, was one of her greatest weaknesses. But, she supposed, it wasn't everyday that you saw a miko in odd clothes, an inu hanyō, a demon slayer, a fox kit and a monk travelling together.

She learned through the grapevine that they were looking for shards of something called the Shikon no tama and, after many weeks of following their general direction, she finally helped them in battle. Occasionally, she would travel with them for a bit, but it had never been in her nature to stay in a large group for long.

Eventually, the Shikon no tama was completed and the miko and the inu hanyō defeated the demon they were bound to defeat. The miko returned to her original time, leaving the inu hanyō to sulk for three years before she was returned to him. The monk and the slayer were married and had several brats. The fox continued to cause mischief. As for her? She set off to travel.

She eventually left Japan and travelled through China and India before making her way to Italy.

There, she had become aware of a group of humans that could wield a fire they called Dying Will Flames. Apparently they manifested as a result of a person's will to survive a life threatening situation. Amused and mildly intrigued, she had looked into it and learned that there was different colours and each had a specific purpose. Red was to destroy, yellow to heal, blue to calm, violet was for propagation, indigo was for illusions and green was to make the body a tank. Orange, apparently, had the ability to cause the colours to harmonise, that colour was also the rarest. Idly, she had mused that maybe the fact the fire she could produce had flashes of both green and violet meant she had a little bit of those flames inside of her.

Time past, as it does and the group turned from vigilantism into the most powerful family in the mafia. She watched in detached amusement as the original purpose faded to the years.

She also came into contact with a man, an earthborn of all things, named Kawahira whose job was to find the people with the strongest flames and force pacifiers onto them. That would end up reverting all except the orange flame, sky, to two year olds within a matter of seconds.. With the sky it was slightly different, they could either retain their natural body and have a shortened life span or turn into toddlers like the rest. They were known as the Arcobaleno, the Strongest Seven.

In fact, they met because he wanted her to be the lightning Arcobaleno for that group but apparently they were rendered useless when they came into contact with daiyōkai. He hadn't been pleased and neither had she, for different reasons of course.

The world kept turning and before she knew it, she was bored again. Except there was nothing to alleviate her boredom this time. The mafia was boring, the so called "strongest" famiglia was unimpressive to the ancient daiyōkai. The demons were forced into hiding by priests, priestesses and monks years ago. When she would look back on it in the years to come, she would wonder how much of that dog bastard's temperament had rubbed off on her for her to move her soul into a new body.

But that is not the point of this tale.

When she opened her eyes after being born for the second time, she made sure to check that she was still a full demon and that her human parents hadn't caused her to lose any of her power. They hadn't, which was a relief for her.

She stared up into the eyes of the tired brunette, her mother, she guessed. That meant that the weak blond kicking up a fuss in the corner must be her father. How pathetic was it that she would be reborn as the daughter of that fool Giotto's descendant.

So it was that Yōso no Azami, daiyōkai, Kurenai no majo, wielder of Ketsueki Sakenomi among other things, was reborn as Tsunami Sawada.

* * *

 **Okay, listen. I did not plan on rewriting this, at least not this soon after putting every story of mine on hiatus. However, my friend, Hope, is an asshole and dared me to rewrite this so now I have to out of spite.**

 **Some stuff will be changed, mainly because I no longer like it. This is basically a side project for me when I get bored of writing my original stuff so dont expect regular updates or anything, though when has that ever been expected with me?**

 **So, here we go! Buckle in for me crying at my past self's mistakes, rewriting bits that I dont like and cursing out Hope whenever I get particularly annoyed.**


	2. Time Flows By

Sometimes, she wondered just what her "parents" had been on when they decided to name their children Tsunayoshi and Tsunami respectively.

Despite her curiosity though, she never really put too much thought into the reason.

It was an irrelevant piece of information and, as much as she would have liked to know why, she had more important things to think about than why her absent father and oblivious mother decided it was a good idea to give their children names that started the same.

* * *

Azami, at three years old, was already very much done with her life. Her mother was kind if not totally all there in the head. Her father...well if it wasn't for her sense of smell, she would have thought that he was dead with how rarely he was home.

The less said about her little brother, the better.

She had always disliked children and this kid was so...aggravating that she was so tempted to kill him. She didn't though. She might have been an ancient daiyōkai but she was still trapped in the body of a three year old.

* * *

She was six when she discovered that Namimori was a haven for lesser yōkai. She had known that yōkai seemed to be more abundant here than anywhere she'd been in the past but she hadn't bothered to find out just how many there actually were.

From what she could tell, she was the strongest yōkai in Namimori and as such they were drawn to her like bees were to flowers. It could be quite annoying at times.

Yōkai, she mused, had over time changed from what they were six hundred years ago. Whilst they still held a general contempt for all humans, the yōkai of this time were more friendly and that was a word she thought she would never use to describe a race that got their kicks from killing humans.

Still, they could be useful. They were adept at finding things out for her and could go long distances without needing to rest, meaning she could find things out about her father.

It was almost like running her own gang.

Hmm, there was an idea.

* * *

When she was eight and Tsuna was five, their father, and how it made her gag to have to call him that, came home with a kind old man. At least that what her mother and brother believed. As soon as she saw him, her instincts acted up. He had sky flames, she realised, her polite smile frozen onto her face as she shook his hand.

'So this is the boss of your famiglia, Giotto? Pathetic, just like you were in the end'.

She didn't linger in the house for long, instead going for a walk.

When she returned, however, she could feel something off with her little brother . She would openly admit to not really liking him all that much but that didn't change the fact that he was her little brother.

That night, as he slept, she carefully checked his flames with hers. What she found made her grit her unusually sharp teeth and hold in a pissed off growl.  
Someone had sealed his sky flames and she could make an accurate guess as to who had done it.

'Why do I care though?' she wondered as she watched him sleep for a moment, ' I suppose he is my brother.'

A memory, fragile and easily brushed aside, re emerged from the shadows of her forgotten memories as she watched her brother.

She'd had three younger sisters, she remembered, and as the oldest, she had looked after them. Their mother had been an aloof woman, leaving her to tend to them the few times they got sick. She hadn't always liked them that much but they were hers and underneath her dislike, she had loved them in her own way.

'Well,' Azami thought, a small smirk appearing on her face, 'I always wanted a brother, now I have one. Woe betide anyone who attempts to harm him from now on."

They wouldn't know it for quite a few more years, but at that moment, Iemitsu Sawada, head of the CEDF and Timoteo, ninth boss of the Vongola famiglia, made a lifelong enemy in someone who could and would painfully, ruthlessly and quickly end their existence without a second thought.

* * *

Azami was nine when she met the brothers who would become three of her most trusted underlings.

She was at the park, avoiding both Nana and Tsuna, when she sensed a weak yōkai's presence. Usually she would have ignored it, having long grown use to the demons that followed her around but something told her to go towards it and for whatever reason she decided to follow it. She never regretted it.

Hidden behind some bushes were three weasels. They would have been completely ordinary were it not for the fact that their claws were like sickles.

'Kamaitachi, been a while since I've seen them around,' Azami noted. She watched them argue between themselves about whether or not they should ally themselves with her, something about her being the strongest.

A heavy sigh escaped her, it always came back to that. "You know, I can hear you, right?"

As one, the three looked up, surprise and fear written on their faces.

She looked back at them, a slightly amused look on her face. "I will not harm you. Yet, at least. However, I would like to know why you were discussing me."

The largest one stepped forward, seemingly having elected himself spokesperson. "We wish to join forces with you, Yōso-sama," he spoke in a calm voice, despite the fact she could quite easily kill him, something that earned them a point in her favour.

'Well, it's not like there's anything else to do around here and leading a group of yōkai might be fun,' she mused silently to herself, vaguely remembering a thought she had had several years ago.

She was silent for a while, mulling over that idea, before nodding her head decisively. She turned to look at them.

"What are your names?"

As she looked at the shocked weasels, she had to ask.

"You don't have names, do you?"

"No, Yōso-sama, we simply call each other by our respective jobs, I am called Leader, he is called Strategist and he is called Medic," Leader told her pointing to each brother in turn.

"I see," she hummed, a sound that resembled a purr, "would you be so kind as to let me name you?"

"It would be an honour, Yōso-sama," the kamaitachi trio said in unison.

"Quite," Azami flashed them a quick smile as she thought over what to call them. She clapped her hands together when she finally decided.

First, she pointed to the first weasel, "from now on your name is Saisho."

Secondly, she pointed to the second weasel, "from now on your name is Ni-ban."

Thirdly, and finally, she pointed to the third weasel, "from now on your name is San-ban."

* * *

Azami was ten when she created the Dōshi. Really, she hated that name but it stuck.

The Dōshi was a group comprised of yōkai that followed her command.

One of the first missions she gave them was to track down her sword and return it to her.

Aside from the Weasel brothers who were her closest underlings, or friends but she won't admit to that, were two moth yōkai, one male, one female who went by the names of Tsuki and Taiyō. They had an odd relationship in that no one could really tell if they were dating or simply friends. As long as they did their job, Azami did not care.

There was a Yuki-Onna by the name of Furostomi. She was exceptionally loyal to Azami and the panther daiyōkai silently worried that she might have to deal with an underling having a crush on her.

She also had an inu yōkai as one of the members of her organization, he was called Chiya. He wasn't all that intelligent but he was loyal and could get the job done.

However there were many more demons under her command, including a few more Inu yōkai and a wolf yōkai, causing her to both remember her old adventures and smirk as she remembered the men she had both fought with and against.

* * *

On his tenth birthday, Azami finally told him about yōkai being a real thing.

He had been sceptical but upon seeing what could be classed as her true appearance, that of a seven foot tall panther demon with intricate markings around her legs and two inverted triangles on her cheeks, he was a lot more of a believer.

She had told him that her having demon blood and him lacking it meant that they weren't really siblings but that she considered him her real brother. He had started crying and she had allowed him to hug her with only a few mild complaints.

* * *

Azami was sixteen when she ran into the boy many called the Demon of Namimori.

When she had heard that, she had stared and stared before bursting into a fit of laughter. That boy wasn't a demon, not by a longshot. He didn't even come close.

He had attacked her with his tonfa when she had shown no reaction to his threat to 'bite her' and had openly called him an annoying little brat.

Let's just say, for the sake of his pride that he lost, badly.

Well, at least he can't call her a herbivore. That was both insulting and annoying.

The downside was that he now constantly wanted to fight her whenever he saw her.

* * *

Azami was seventeen when her mother got her brother a home tutor and her life was permanently derailed from its original track.

She never entirely forgave Nana for that.

* * *

 **Didn't I say this wouldn't be a regular thing? Yes.**

 **But I made that rule so that also means I can break it.**

 **Anyway! Some quick little bits of info you should know!**

 **1) As I am going to aim at focusing on canon characters more, I feel like I should let you know that they might not always be entirely in character. I will try to keep them in character as much as possible but, seeing as I am not the original creator of KHR!, I think it should be expected that some things wont be entirely the same.**

 **2) Byakuran and Azami will still be flirty and in the early stages of getting into a relationship, probably. Xanxus will still be the several times great grandson of Uroko-jū, who was a dragon daiyōkai and will be mentioned earlier then he was previously. Same goes with Sesshomaru. Skull will still Shippō.**

 **3) I feel like Azami and Reborn would be friends, so that's a thing that will happen.**

 **Basically, since I am no longer pulling things out of thin air, everything will make a lot more sense.**


	3. Azami and Reborn Have a Conversation

"Azami-sama, we have received word from our operatives in Italy that Reborn has been sent to train your brother as the next Vongola boss."

"So, the last one finally kicked the bucket."

"Yes."

"Hmm, tell them to split their forces and watch the Varia for a while. I have a feeling something might be happening very soon."

"As you wish, Azami-sama."

* * *

The day Reborn landed in Namimori began as a normal day. Azami got up, got dressed and had breakfast whilst waiting for her brother to wake up.

She planned to go the Doshi after school, as there were several matters she needed to attend to. Her brother didn't need to know that though. Despite the fact that she had told him about her yokai blood and he'd taken that rather well, she didn't think telling him about the fact she was the leader of what basically amounted to a gang would go quite as well.

Did they have an okay sibling relationship? She liked to think so. They weren't constantly glaring at each other and sometimes she would even help him with his schoolwork. They really weren't all that close though, to be honest.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden shriek from her brother and the scent of coffee, gunsmoke and what she thought the sun would have smelt like invading her senses.

* * *

Later, when both of the Sawada teenagers had left for school, Reborn went over their respective reactions in his head. What he realised caused a frown to appear on his face.

Dame-Tsuna's reaction of shock and disbelief had been expected and he'd taken amusement in being right about him. However, it was his sister's reaction that caused him to frown.

She's acted as though she'd been expecting it. Her face had given none of her thoughts away, even to him. He was grudgingly impressed.

Iemitsu seemed to be under the illusion that she was a naive and ditsy girl, something he could clearly tell was false within only a few minutes of being in her company.

It would seem that Tsunami Sawada was someone to keep an eye on.

* * *

Azami followed the crowd of high school students as they flooded out of the school gates before breaking away and heading towards the part of town where most of the warehouses were located.

The specific warehouse she was heading towards was one of the more obscure, ivy plants covered most of the brick and the windows were all smashed slightly.

Inside however was a different story. The walls and floor were clean, the furniture was neat and practical and the yōkai were always doing something.

As she walked past them, they bowed slightly to their leader before going back to whatever task it was they doing to begin with.

A small smirk crossed her face as she acknowledged to herself that it was good to be the queen of an organization, especially one where your underlings respect you and can actually get the job done.

Shaking away her somewhat arrogant thoughts, she continued to walk to her office where she would change into one of her suits before heading to a meeting with her most trusted underlings.

* * *

The meeting room was much like the rest of the building, neat and practical. A large oak table sat in the middle of the room with simple oak chairs around it, a larger but still simple oak chair sat at the head of the table.

Already in their seats were the three weasel brothers. Saisho, even sat down was the tallest, a fact he was rubbing in his shorter and chubbier brother, Ni-Ban's, face as the last one, San-Ban sat watching his brothers with fond exasperation.

Across from the three sat the two moth yōkai who took the shared title of Azami's greatest spies, Tsuki and Taiyō. Both were engaged in conversation though it was more Tsuki talking and Taiyō nodding along with what she said.

Besides Taiyō sat a pale skinned woman holding a fan in front of the lower half of her face. Her name was Furostomi. She simply sat there, paying no attention to any of the conversations happening around her, though every once in a while she would look towards the door with hope in her eyes only to look away disappointed.

Besides her sat a large, muscular man who was simply watching everyone in the room as he waited for the one he swore his life to.

As one the occupants turned to look at their leader as she walked into the room. In one movement, they rose as she walked to stand in front of her chair. She looked at each one in turn before nodding her head once and sitting down, they returned the gesture and retook their seats.

Azami looked at her most trusted followers and smiled slightly. "Let us begin."

* * *

'I wonder,' Azami mused quietly to herself as she did her homework, 'how Shippo is doing these days. I hadn't seen him in years before i restarted my life'.

She was so invested in both her thoughts and her work that she almost missed the sound of her door opening. Azami twisted in her seat to look at the toddler sized hitman.

"What does my brother's tutor want with me?" she asked him, raising her eyebrow slightly in question.

"I believe," he began in an even tone of voice, "that you and i need to talk."

"About what?" Azami tilted her head to the side, playing innocent.

"About why you reacted so calmly to the news that your brother will be the next Vongola boss."

"Hmm, when Iemitsu was here a few years ago, I recall him saying something about the Vongola with the old man he brought," she lied easily.

"You don't call him father," Reborn noted, pretending to accept her reason.

"Iemitsu is, in my opinion, a waste of space that has no right to breath air," she smiled sweetly at the hitman who smirked in agreement.

"Was that all you wanted?" she asked, head tilted to the side.

"For now," Reborn nodded at her and left the room.

Azami stared at the door for a long while before shaking her head and returning to her work. She would deal with him at a later date.

* * *

 **Lmao, this might have been the worst chapter of the first one. I am saying that having not looked too deeply at any of the chapters.**

 **Anywho, there might be slight hints of Azami/Reborn but they wouldn't be end game and that's a very big might.**

 **Also, something I left out of the last chapter's authors note is that Tsuna and Azami will have something of a sibling relationship. They won't be close, mainly because I don't see Azami ever being close with family members, but they will still care about what happens to each other.**


	4. Tsuna Gains and So Does Azami

After she had left school and checked in at her headquarters to make sure there was no paperwork for her to deal with, Azami headed to TakeSushi. It might have been busier than she would have usually liked but she didn't want to be near the house for a while, after what her spies had told her.

Gokudera Hayato, otherwise known as Smoking Bomb Hayato, was reportedly in Namimori. According to her sources, he was there for her brother. She wasn't too worried, Reborn was supposedly the World's Greatest Hitman so she doubted he would let anything too bad happen to his student, especially considering he was the only true male heir left and heaven forbid they have to resort to having a female boss. The mafia was sexist like that. Daniela had been the only female Vongola boss and she'd done remarkably well, leading the famiglia through a war. Yet female bosses were still a rarity.

The whole thing was just bound to lead to endless amounts of chaos that she didn't want to deal with at that moment though.

'Besides,' she thought as she requested a table, 'i have to keep up the act that i know virtually nothing about the mafia. It wouldn't do for me to recognise him and give the game away.'

Azami took her seat and glanced at her phone, there were a few texts from her subordinates letting her know how things were going with Tsuna.

'Well, he isn't dead yet. That's a relief.'

* * *

Tsuna stared at the silver haired male who, just minutes ago, had been trying to blow him and was now on his knees pledging his servitude to him, all because he saved him from being blown up by his own explosives.

"When Azami-nee hears this, she's never gonna let me live it down," Tsuna muttered to himself, shaking his head at Gokudera's actions.

Now, how to make sure Azami didn't take revenge on the bomber for trying to kill him.

* * *

'All things considered,' Tsuna mused to himself after Azami and Gokudera had met, 'it didn't go that badly. All I needed to do was mention that she was my older sister and Gokudera-san was immediately respectful'.

'Though Azami really didn't have to make that comment about me gathering minions, I don't want to know what Gokudera would've done if he hadn't know she was my sister. Azami would probably have caused some form of bodily harm to him as well as payback for attempting to attack her and then everything would've gone to hell'.

* * *

Taiyō stared at the reports from the Italian branch with a look of extreme disbelief. They had discovered something that had the potential to ruin Iemitsu's marriage and, as he knew exactly how his boss felt about her supposed father, there was almost no chance that she would pass up the chance to get her mother to divorce him.

"Well," the moth yōkai muttered, taking the reports that detailed Iemitsu's mistake with him to be delivered to Azami's office, "if anything good must come out of this, Azami-sama now has two younger brothers."

* * *

A certain panther daiyōkai tapped her nails against the top of her desk. Saisho, Ni-ban and San-ban were adamant that they had something that they thought she would like to see. Why they couldn't just tell her what it was, she didn't know. They wanted it to be a surprise, they said.

That didn't excuse the fact they were taking an age to bring whatever it was to her.

The door to her office opened and she pinned the brothers with an unamused look as they brought in something wrapped in what looked to be a bed sheet.

"You took your time," her voice was tinged with barely contained annoyance.

"We think you'll be able to forgive us when you see what we managed to retrieve," Saisho gave her a wide, happy smile as he placed the bundle down in front of her.

"I'll be the judge of that," Azami muttered, unwinding the bedsheet. Inside was a very familiar sword.

"Ketsueki Sakenomi," she breathed, delight blossoming on her face. Her sword seem to hum in agreement.

"Still don't think you'll be able to forgive us for taking so long?" the three brothers said together in a teasing tone of voice.

"Keep acting smug and I won't," Azami shot back without hesitation before smiling at them. "Really though, thank you for finding it."

"Of course, Azami-sama."

* * *

Azami stilled as soon as she opened the door to her room. Someone had been in there, she could smell them, and they were neither Reborn nor Nana.

Cautiously, she dropped her bag besides the doorway and looked around. It didn't seem like anything had been tampered with, her room was still as neat and impersonal as it had always been.

She almost started to relax. Until she turned to look at her desk. There, sat innocently in the centre of the table, was a small box with a card leaning against it. In that vase, there was a white flower, an orchid to be specific.

Azami narrowed her eyes at the sight and walked cautiously over to it. She picked up the card and glanced over the printed words.

'To my precious thing, with love.'

"Okaaay," Azami muttered under her breath, "that is both weird and somewhat worrying."

Who the hell could have gotten into her room, left the flower and note, and gotten out without letting anyone know?

She pondered that question as she stared at the flower. Ultimately, she decided to leave it there, though she caught herself sneaking suspicious glances at it until it finally died.

Too many of the plant-like yokai she had met in her lifetime had wished to cause her harm, after all. It never hurt to be wary.

* * *

 **Woo, okay. I take back what I said about last chapter being hard to rewrite. Compared to this one, it was easy as pie.**

 **Anywho, can anyone catch the reference to a certain somebody? I wasn't trying very hard to hide it so I'll be surprised if nobody does!**


	5. Of Idiots and Old Friends

Reborn pondered the enigma that was Tsunami Sawada. She reacted to everything mafia related that was thrown at her calmly and sometimes even boredly, as if she'd seen it happen before.

Whenever he tried to follow where she went, he would lose her very quickly, something that both aggravated and impressed him. Occasionally, he would find her practising with a katana.

Tsunami was a mystery, one he was eager to solve.

* * *

The day started out as it normally did for the panther daiyokai, she got up and was out of the house before anyone else. It all started to go downhill when a pink haired woman gave her a drink that just reeked of poison.

"You know, the least she could've done was not make it so blatantly obvious that she was trying to poison me. I bet even a child would've been able to tell something was off with her," Azami noted to herself as she chucked the can into the bin.

As she continued her walk to school, she thought back on the scent of the woman. 'She smelled vaguely like the bomb idiot, meaning she shares at least some blood with him' she thought before pushing all thoughts of hitmen and women out of her head.

She did make sure to text her brother, letting him know that someone would probably try to poison him soon.

* * *

Takeshi Yamamoto, Namimori middle school's best baseball player, had apparently broken his arm and couldn't play for a while. In Namimori, news travelled fast, it seemed. That and she had overheard some of the other teenage girls gossiping about it.

If she was being honest, she didn't really care all that much. Baseball had never been of any interest to her so she didn't really see the big deal.

* * *

The first time she met the brat named Lambo, she was reminded ever so slightly of Shippo. He hadn't been as loud or as young as the kid but he'd been just as troublemaking when he had the chance to be.

She wondered if he was still alive and made a mental note to have her underlings look into it.

* * *

Azami let out a sigh of relief as she sat down on the floor of her room in the lotus position. It was relatively peaceful seeing as Reborn was off terrorizing Tsuna and meant that she could meditate for a while.

She'd been neglecting to do that since the sun Arcobaleno showed.

Breathing in deeply, she closed her eyes and pictured the fire she could control. She imagined the heat, the colours that danced amongst the usual orange. She imagined the screams of her enemies as they were burnt alive, from the inside out, as all they were turned to ash.

Exhaling loudly, she opened her eyes and smirked.

She closed her eyes again and breathed in.

She imagined controlling water. She imagined using it to create shapes in the air. She imagined drawing it out from her enemies bodies, watching them slowly shrivel up and die.

She imagined controlling air. She imagined using it to hover above the ground. She imagined drawing it out from someone's lungs and watching them choke, trying to breathe but failing.

She imagined controlling earth. She imagined using it as a shield. She imagined using it to crack the earth beneath her enemies feet in two and sending them downwards, crushing them when she closed the earth back up.

* * *

It was night by the time she finished her paperwork.

As she stretched and got up to get herself a drink, she became aware of a dull tapping on her window. When she looked, she saw an unusually coloured Elephant hawk moth. Normal Elephant hawk moths were green with pink tipped wings, this one was black with lavender tipped wings.

She quickly opened the window, allowing the familiar moth to fly in and land on the floor, promptly shifting into a female shape.

"Tsuki, what are you doing here?"

"Azami-sama," the woman bowed swiftly before standing up. "We just got a report from the Vongola spies. As of last week, Xanxus, the son of Vongola Nono, is no longer frozen."

Azami blinked. "As soon as he has recovered from being on ice, he's gonna come after Tsuna and me as well," she said in acknowledgement of her words.

The moth yōkai nodded. "That's not all, the Vongola spies looked into him and came up with something interesting."

She continued at her leaders nod, "Xanxus has no relation to the Vongola family, he was raised believing himself in line to the title and well..."

"When he found out he had no claim, he staged a coup," she filled in what her subordinate wasn't saying.

"Yes," Tsuki nodded, not surprised in the least by her leaders ability to get the right conclusions so quickly.

Azami hummed slightly in thought. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Tsuki."

Recognising that she had been dismissed, Tsuki nodded and shifted back into moth form before flying out the window.

Azami watched her go before sighing. "Old bastards should give up power before it goes to their heads," she muttered. Azami wasn't going to get any work done now, she grabbed her red sleeveless hoodie and pushed the window all the way open. She swung her legs over the window sill, jumped down and started running in the direction of the park.

* * *

Azami didn't even bother to look up from the book she was reading when her mother announced that she had won something off a tea bottle.

"I assume this is you causing chaos," she commented to Reborn, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.

He smirked at her, neither agreeing or disagreeing.

* * *

Azami listened to the rain Arcobaleno absently as she watched the horizon. 'My trouble sense is tingling. Something is going to happen,' she mused to herself before sighing.

Seeing as she wasn't the Vongola heir and wasn't a guardian either, she didn't have to do any of the courses. A shame, they could've been fun.

* * *

Shippō, or as he was now known to the mafia, Skull, sighed.

He was once more being forced to attack Mafia land when he really didn't care, he had stopped caring the day he woke up and realised he was alone in the world. Kagome had died years ago, Inuyasha followed her shortly after from a broken heart. The same could be said for Miroku and Sango. Their descendants were scattered to the four winds, Kirara was dead and he had no clue where Azami was. She had always loved to travel which made it hard to keep track of her. He missed her though, she'd been like a bitchy older sister to him.

Despite the fact he was so done with the Carcassa famiglia, he found himself anticipating the invasion for the first time in years. He had the feeling that something was going to happen.

* * *

When they were told that the invasion was a common occurrence, Azami was unimpressed. She was even more unimpressed when her brother was the one who was forced to lead the assault against the opposition.

When she found Reborn fighting against a baby wearing a purple jumpsuit and a helmet however, she was struck by a sense of familiarity. Curious despite herself, she prodded his flames with her own and had to resist the urge to reel back in shock. When he turned slightly to look at her, she saw the same shock and recognition reflected back at her from violet eyes. Granted they were hidden by a green visor but she had pretty good eyesight.

* * *

Skull wasn't surprised when Reborn kicked his ass, he wasn't surprised by much nowadays. However he would fully admit to being both surprised and happy when he caught sight of the seemingly teenaged girl watching the fight. She looked like a younger Azami. Same golden cat eyes, same mess of brown hair, same olive brown skin, she was even roughly the same height!

When their eyes met, he was shocked to realize that she didn't just look like Azami. She was Azami.

She didn't have the same look of shock on her face that he was sure he did but she did look happy to see him.

* * *

Later, if anyone noticed that Skull disappeared from the Carcassa base, they didn't say anything.

* * *

Skull, or Shippō, considering he currently looked like he did in his youth, sat across from his old friend. She had a cup of sake and he had a cup of tea.

She looked at him closely before smirking.

"So I see you were also targeted by that annoying bastard," She began, amusement dancing in her eyes.

"What?" he answered, staring at her in shock.

She sighed, an amused smirk on her lips as she looked at him. "About four hundred years ago, give or take, I was approached by a man named Kawahira. He tried to give me a green pacifier. However, because of what I am, it didn't stick very well."

"Wait, you're tellin' me that you were approached by Checker Face to serve as the lightning Arcobaleno...and the pacifier rejected you?!"

"That's the best way to put it, considering that as soon as it touched my skin, it acted like it had been shocked," she told him drily.

He stared into the honey coloured liquid of his drink."I wonder why the pacifier bonded with me then," he mused.

Azami shrugged. "Probably because you're not a daiyōkai, the power difference between you and me is pretty big."

"Perhaps…"

The two lapsed into silence before Azami asked a question that had been annoying her.

"So how did it happen?" at his confused look, she elaborated. "The immortal Skull, lackey to the Arcobaleno, weakest Arcobaleno thing?"

"Oh, that," he nodded. "Well, one day I woke up and realised that I was alone. Everyone else was dead and I had no clue where you were. I kinda fell into depression after that particular realization. I wandered around aimlessly until I was in the same town as a stunt show, I went to see it and swiftly became hooked. I kind of wanted to make a new start so I chose the name Skull for its association with death. I think the first shows I did, before I found out about my healing factor, I wanted to die."

A bitter smile overcame his face. "I then started doing more dangerous stunt, people started calling me the Immortal Skull, the man that even death hates."

He laughed, a broken, hollow sound. "And then I was asked to do a job, that's when it all came crashing down."

"You were seen as a civilian so you quickly figured out that you couldn't show your true colours. You were stuck in the role of lackey to others," she surmised.

The slight nod of his head told her she was correct, he wasn't even surprised that she had been able to figure it out.

"What about you?" he asked her in return.

"I died," she said blithely.

At his incredulous expression, she added, "I got better."

She shook her head slightly. "Seriously though, I was bored so I forced myself to reincarnate. I became the descendant of someone I knew when they were alive and just went with it. When I was about six, I discovered this town was something of a yōkai hotspot," she shrugged, "I was ten when I created this organisation. Other then that my life has been normal," she blinked before adding, "well as normal as life can be when you have a future mafia boss for a younger brother and you're single-handedly in control of most of the yōkai in this part of Japan."

"Only you, Azami, only you," Shippō said fondly, looking at the woman who was like a sister to him.

She rolled her eyes, placed her cup down and laced her fingers together. "Shippō, I have a proposition for you."

"Go on." He said, giving her his full attention.

"As it stands, this organisation is rather low on illusion users and about a quarter of them are children. The rest are mediocre at best and terrible at worst. What I'm saying is, would you like to train them?" she fixed him with her piercing eyes.

He mulled the thought over in his head. The offer was tempting, a chance to finally get away from the Carcassa famiglia but he had to ask. "What about the mafia? If I disappear, someone's going to get suspicious."

She gave him one of her perfected looks that practically screamed 'you are an idiot'.

"I'm aware of that. But think of it this way. When you're operating as a mafioso, you are Skull, the whiny, weak arrogant Arcobaleno," she smirked slightly. "When you're operating as a kitsune, you're Shippō, the mischievous, observant strong-willed fox."

He stared at her. "Sometimes, I am forced to remember that you have been around for a great deal longer than I have and are a lot more intelligent."

"With age comes wisdom. You'll get there eventually. Who knows, you might even end up being as wise as me," she teased.

Shippō rolled his eyes and held up his hand. "I accept."

She stared at him, discerning whether or not he was telling the truth. Slowly, she smiled and accepted his hand, shaking it firmly.

"Welcome to the Dōshi, Shippō."

* * *

 **Would you look at that! I smashed two chapters and got a 2000+ words chapter. I should do that more often.**

 **Really I have no idea as to which month KHR! starts in, I dont think anyone does tbh (why is this relevant? that'd be a spoiler!), but there'll be more mentions of Azami's "admirer" next chapter. Why? Because reasons.**

 **Azami's gonna be so paranoid by the time the 10YL arc comes around that I'd be surprised if she didn't figure out who was giving her stuff.**

 **Lmao, guess who's finally watching KHR! Believe it or not, I wrote the entirety of the first Black cats and orange skies using only the wiki and fanfiction. Cause it is hard trying to find KHR! available to watch for free, let me tell you.**

 **But since Crunchyroll has a lot of ads and keeps freezing, I'm only watching from where Byakuran comes in. He's legit my favourite character and he ticks all the boxes to be one of my favourite characters too!**

 **Villain? Check!**

 **Albino? Check!**

 **Kind of insane? Check!**

 **This is been a really long authors note so I'll leave you folks to it!**


	6. Revelations and the Varia

"All I'm saying is that I find it really hard to believe that Sesshomaru of all people has managed to survive in the modern world as not only a businessman but as one who owns a fashion company," Skull waved his arms around and made a shrieking sound when he knocked something over off camera.

Azami laughed at him, resting her chin on the back of one of her hands. "Honestly, I was the same. You should've seen my face when I found out."

"I bet that was something," he laughed, smiling widely at her.

"Yeah," she sighed as her gaze wandered over the vase that appeared in her room not too long ago. She still didn't know who put it there and at this point, she was unsure if she even wanted to.

"Something up?" Skull asked, noticing her slightly out of it expression.

"Not really," Azami sat back in her chair and stretched. "A while ago, someone managed to get into my room and leave a gift of sorts. I still haven't found out who it was."

"That sounds creepy."

"Tell me about it," she snorted, glancing at the clock on her wall. "I hate to cut this short but I have a meeting in about 5 minutes."

"Don't worry about it! I have to go on a mission but I'll call you in 3 days to tell you how it went," he saluted her with a smile on his face.

"Talk to you later, Skull."

* * *

When she heard that some students from Namimori Middle School had been attacked by students from another school, she hadn't really cared. None of them had been her brother so she didn't see the need to.

That changed when she got a phone call.

"Azami-sama?" her head female spy asked, voice worried.

"Speaking. What is it?"

"According to the spies who follow your brother, he has been sent to track down one of the few people to ever escape Vendicare, Rokudo Mukuro, by Timoteo. Reportedly, Rokudo is in league with several other escapees."

Azami's eyes had narrowed at the mention of Timoteo. She still hadn't forgotten how he set her instincts off and not in a good way.

"I see. Tell the rest that won't be able to make the meeting at 4," Azami said, keeping her phone to her ear with her shoulder as she dragged Sakenomi out from underneath her bed.

"Will do, Azami-sama. Please be careful."

* * *

Reborn found himself unsurprised that Tsunami had followed them, though he did have to wonder how she found out so quickly.

Tsuna, on the other hand, was slightly worried. He'd seen the aftereffects of her anger, usually after she was done with a bully who had pushed a little too far, and he knew that nothing good could come from this.

* * *

Azami concealed herself, paying close attention to the fights her brother's Guardians participated in.

'Well, at least they aren't completely pathetic," she thought as she finally revealed herself when Mukuro appeared.

'Still, I don't think any of them are a match for him as they are now. At least, not without help,' she finished her previous thought before focusing on the battle. They were doing rather poorly, not that she was all that surprised. She continued to think that until the trident wielder managed to stab her. Azami would be honest and say that she had felt mostly amusement at that moment..

Did he really think she would be that easy to possess?

* * *

For as long as Rokudo Mukuro could remember, he had been able to see yōkai.

Perhaps it was arrogant to believe that because he could possess humans and normal yōkai, he could also possess daiyōkai. Of course, considering he had never met a daiyōkai before, it would have been impossible to tell the difference.

He didn't know and, quite simply, didn't care. At least not until he tried to possess the older sister of Tsunayoshi Sawada, the Vongola heir and someone who would be very useful for his goal.

Nothing made sense. There was fire but it was on water. There was earth but it was above him. There was air but it was tinged black like smoke.

Standing in the middle of it all was a calm yet unamused demonic daiyōkai. Her pupils were gold and her sclera were green.

"That was very foolish of you, Rokudo Mukuro," the woman snarled despite her calm expression. "To think that you were arrogant enough to believe you could possess a daiyōkai. You are a suicidal man."

She disappeared from where she stood and appeared directly in front of him. Her clawed hands wrapped around his throat tight enough for the claws to break the surface.

"Get out. You have no place here," she told him before throwing him into the flaming water.

* * *

"You know," Azami commented, opening her eyes slowly, "I really didn't think he was dumb enough to do that."

"And what would 'that' be?" Reborn asked, one eyebrow raised.

Azami aimed a bland smile at him. "Try to possess a daiyōkai."

Had it been any other time, she might've tried to lie, but she was so done with people at that moment that she couldn't be bothered.

"A daiyōkai?" Reborn's voice was sceptical.

"A much stronger kind of yōkai," Azami allowed her eyes to bleed gold and green, "I trust you know what those are."

She didn't stick around to hear his answer.

* * *

"Azami-sama?"

"Yes, Taiyō?"

"We just got two reports from the Varia and the Vongola spies," the moth yōkai placed both of the folders down in front of her.

"Thank you," Azami dismissed him with a sharp nod, watching him leave before she started to read.

'So, the Varia have finally made their move," she leaned forward and rested her chin on her hand, staring at the words. 'Squalo Superbia has been sent to retrieve the Vongola rings from...Basil," she narrowed her eyes slightly at that. This could be a good chance to get his DNA, just to double check he was Iemitsu's son.

"I'll let San-ban know. He's the most level headed medic we have," she decided.

* * *

When she returned home from her headquarters, it was to the sight of Iemitsu being lovey dovey with Nana.

"Gross," she grumbled, just loud enough for them to hear.

Azami sighed as she dodged an attempted hug from her supposed father. "Please do not touch me. We are not close enough for me to even entertain the idea of letting you into my personal space for anything other than a fight," she drawled.

Before he could respond, Tsuna and his friends returned with Basil.

What followed was them being given the Vongola rings because Vongola Nono had disappeared, she already knew that, and a mild dispute about whether or not Lambo, Tsuna's Lightning guardian, should fight considering he was five years old which ended in her being volunteered against her will by Reborn to serve as a placeholder.

Azami had glared at him but had accepted the ring without complaint.

She was just a placeholder after all.

* * *

Admittedly, there could have been better places for the two groups to meet but nope. It had to be in the park, where anyone could see them. Though at least they were meeting at night. Azami supposed that meant that no one could see them, at least in their minds.

Why was the mafia filled with idiots?Azami sighed from her perch. She could hear their breathing and practically smell the barely suppressed killing intent coming from the hidden assassins. She looked down at her phone, the snipers were in position.

She watched with disinterest as the seven assassins appeared, her eyes scrutinising each of them in turn. 'A groupie, a swordsman, a hand to hand combat expert, the Mist Arcobaleno, a narcissist, a man wearing armour and a dragon in human form'.

"Ya know, I'm betting more on them winning, considering they aren't children, mostly," she muttered before jumping down from the tree branch she sat on.

A scowl appeared on her previously blank face as soon as iemitsu arrived, bringing with him that stupid weapon of his. What was a pickaxe going to do against a gun? She really wanted to know.

She half listened to the idiot explain where the ring battles would take place. 'They really could have picked anywhere other than the school but no. Go with a cloud's territory, that seems smart,' she grumbled internally to herself, staring hard at the figure who could only be the Varia's cloud.

He didn't feel like a cloud and his scent was familiar. As in, it was the scent of someone she really hated.

'So that's where Timoteo is. Good to know'.

* * *

The hairs on the back of Azami's neck stood on end as she froze in the doorway to her room. Someone had been there, the same someone who had left that orchid.

She walked in, cautiously looking around. Was she being paranoid? Yes, but the whole thing set every instinct in her into fight or flight mode. She didn't know why and she really starting to think that she would be better off not knowing.

The box of pocky on her bed made her relax slightly. At least she knew what had been left for her now.

Azami walked over to it and picked up the card. It was typed, same as before. 'I know you're fond of these, precious thing. With love.'

Her hand clenched into a fist and the card turned to ash.

* * *

"They are so doomed."

"Of course they are. They're just children, Skull," Azami told the purple haired infant as she buttoned the black military jacket she was wearing, leaving the top two buttons undone and revealing the red top she was wearing underneath.

"I didn't expect you to agree to fight as a lightning. Usually, you're pretty adamant about not getting involved with your brother's problems," he observed.

"I didn't either but it pissess off iemitsu. He wants to keep me out of the mafia"

She turned to face him, an amused smirk on her face. "Little does he realize that he failed at that a long time ago."

"I was aware of that but thank you for clarifying," Skull deadpanned.

Azami rolled her eyes. "See ya later, pipsqueak," she said went to switch off her laptop.

"I resent that!"

"Yeah, yeah."

* * *

 **This chapter and the omake that will follow this author's note are dedicated to LunarCatNinja! Why? Because they are one of my favourite reviewers and I always get a smile out of their reviews! Also they may have caused me to have the idea for the omake in the first place.**

* * *

~OMAKE~

"So. I hear you're dating the Gesso boss."

Azami looked up at Iemitsu suspiciously, put on edge by his unusually neutral tone.

"So what if I am? Who I date is none of your business," she drawled, closing her book with a light thump.

"I am your father! Of course it matters!" Iemitsu exclaimed, glaring at her. "Or have you forgotten exactly what he did?"

"Okay, first of all," Azami stood up and fixed him with a glare of her own, hands on her hips, "considering you were absent for most of my childhood, you don't get to pull the father card. Second of all, have you forgotten the fact that I am a daiyōkai? Something neither you nor Nana are. And third of all, what does it matter what the future him did? Byakuran has changed."

"He hasn't and I refuse to let you date him any longer," Iemitsu scowled.

"Too fucking bad," she spat and flounced out of the room.

(~Ending: Version 1~)

Not even a week later, Azami pointedly kissed Byakuran at one of the Vongola parties. In full view of basically everyone important.

Iemitsu had gone crimson with fury and, when she finally pulled away long enough to notice, Azami gave him a smirk and the middle finger. Let's just say there were more than a few comments about that.

(~Ending: Version 2~)

Azami, as soon as she left Iemitsu behind, had called Byakuran and told him to pack his bags because she kidnapping him. When he asked why, she explained. He laughed and went along with it.

The pair disappeared for a week and when they did come back, it was with smug smiles and wedding rings.

Iemitsu had worked himself into a fury over that whilst Tsuna had been hysterical.

Azami and Byakuran couldn't find it in themselves to give a damn.


	7. Azami is Unsurprised and Then She Is

"Reborn."

"Yes, Tsunami?"

"What do you think would be enough to get Nana to divorce Iemitsu?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Just curious,"at his disbelieving look, she sighed. That lie had been a poor one. "Recently, I was made aware of some rather interesting information. Information that I don't think will surprise you."

"Tell me."

"Iemitsu is rather bad at honouring his wedding vows."

The next morning, Nana was told the bad news. That her husband had cheated on her and managed to sire another son. Sadly, she didn't make any plans to divorce him just yet but he was banned from the house.

Azami called that a win.

* * *

Despite the fact that she should probably have cared about being in a fight with an assassin, she didn't. Her plan was simple, hit him where it hurts, don't let him hit her and get the ring as quickly as possible.

She found herself smirking when she completed each of those steps. It had been way too easy for her.

* * *

The following battle's were barely of any interest.

Takeshi Yamamoto beat the Sword Emperor. That was a surprise and she would readily admit to it being so if asked.

Gokudera Hayato lost to the narcissistic blond. That really wasn't.

The Mist Arcobaleno lost to, and wasn't this a surprise considering he hates the mafia, Rokudo Mukuro. Apparently he had managed to get a vessel during his time in prison, someone called Chrome. Iemitsu had managed to get the mist bastard to agree to act as Tsuna's mist guardian in exchange for his minion's release.

'Was that smart?" she asked herself. Probably not because it was Iemitsu's doing.

Then came the Cloud battle and the Gola Mosca breaking apart to reveal Vongola Nono.

They were all rather surprised about that, Azami thought later on.

* * *

"I'm changing the name of the Dōshi."

"To what?" Skull asked, blinking slightly at the sudden announcement.

"Hantei."

"Judgement, huh. It fits," he smiled at her, a mischievous look in his eyes. "You are a very judging person after all."

"Oh, shut up," Azami rolled her eyes and laughed.

* * *

They tried to poison her.

They. Tried. To. Poison. HER.

She was tempted to laugh because really? Poison? It wasn't that easy to kill or incapacitate her.

However when the Varia lightning tried to take the Vongola lightning ring where it was placed, she'd had enough. She was so done with acting like a pathetic human.

Her hand clamped down on his shoulder, claws easily tearing through fabric to reach the skin beneath, piecing the flesh with ease. Alone that wouldn't have done anything except draw blood but coupled with the poison that coated her nails and the fact that he was already poisoned, the human collapsed very quickly from the combined toxins.

Azami stood up straight and stretched "Didn't anyone ever tell you, Leviathan, that only fools dare to anger a daiyōkai?" she asked idly as she walked past him, snatching up the ring and sliding it onto her finger as she went. She turned to look at him out of the corner of her eye. "You however are so stupidly devoted to your boss that I doubt my warning will have any affect on you," She continued walking.

The first thing she did was go to higher ground. That way, she had more freedom to escape if she felt the need to.

Part of her attention was attracted by the sound of thumping, she shook her head. It was irrelevant, a waste of time, and continued on her way.

'Well,' she thought as she opened a window and jumped down, 'the whole mafia thing isn't all bad, I found Shippō again after about five hundred years.' She continued walking around the school grounds, occasionally having to duck out of sight away from the humans.

She was not in the mood to play with them and she was fully aware that if she fought one, she would most likely kill them to satisfy the bloodlust that had been growing since this foolish competition began.

She watched with an amused smile on her face as the Varia boss managed to get six of the Vongola Rings from his subordinates, except for the lightning Ring of course. He got pissed at them for that, though she was sure he was always angry.

'Still, it's not like I'm going to give it to them, that would be an insult to my pride,' she thought, toying with the silly thing.

As it was, the Rings rejected him because he didn't have Vongola blood.

She didn't stick around after that.

* * *

Azami paled at the sight of a collection of photographs on her bed, along with the note that she had grown to expect with these offerings. She ran a hand through her hair and picked up the photos.

As she flicked through them, she realised they were all of her. From the way she wasn't looking at the camera in almost all of them, she could assume they had been taken without her knowledge. In the last one though, she was looking at the camera with an expression of clear surprise.

She looked at the corner of the last one. It was dated somewhen in February, 9 years into the future.

"What the hell," Azami mouthed, staring at that little date. It would've been easy to say that they were fakes but then...why was her hair cut in a bob? She knew she had never that particular haircut and she didn't think it was possible to photoshop it to make it look like that. If it was, then why got to the effort?

Azami tossed them back onto her bed like they had burned her, the irony would've made her laugh if she wasn't so worried, and picked up the card.

'I'll be seeing you again soon, precious thing. With love'.

"Oh dear."

* * *

 **Remember when I said this was a side project? I lied, obviously.**

 **Welp, onwards to the future arc and the appearance of the one behind Azami's paranoia.**


	8. The Future, Paranoia and Inu Daiyōkai

Azami had a bad feeling. Considering who her brother was and who she herself was, that wasn't surprising. There was more than a few people out to get the both of them, for varying reasons.

But what was surprising was the sheer dread she felt. Dread she hadn't felt since Naraku and his schemes. Dread that she was certain she would never feel again after his defeat.

Azami sighed as she sat down on the floor of her bedroom. Maybe she was being paranoid but she felt that the feeling of dread was linked to whoever had managed to get into her room and leave those notes.

"They left a weirdly specific type of flower though. A white orchid. I don't think I've ever shown much of an interest in that flower," she pondered aloud. "Whoever left it must've had a specific reason for doing so."

* * *

"Saisho, Ni-ban and San-ban. I need you to do something for me."

"What, Azami-sama?"

"Something is going to happen. I want you to get into contact with Sesshomaru, tell him Yoso no Azami sent you. He'll listen. Let him know that something big is coming, something that will shake the world as we know it. Prepare back ups of every file we have, in case the originals are destroyed. Most importantly of all, find somewhere you can retreat to incase this building is attacked."

"Whatever's coming must be bad for you to want to get in contact with Sesshomaru," San-ban observed.

Azami closed her eyes and smiled slightly. "Heh, it promises to be. Leave for Tokyo as soon as I get back, there's something Sesshomaru will need."

* * *

Azami hummed to herself as she read one of the few books that told the story of the Shikon Miko. She might have lived through it and known how the story ended but it was a good way to get a quick laugh out of some of the mistakes they made.

Such as Kagome having an affair with Koga and Miroku. She'd choked on her laughter at that one, it was priceless. There was also the one about Naraku having an unhealthy obsession with her, she had just laughed at that one for the fact it sounded like some trashy teenage romance novel.

Of course, her reading was interrupted by the sound of the Ten Year Bazooka going off.

Azami sighed. "That time already?" she asked herself rhetorically, standing up. She picked up the hoodie, t-shirt and jeans she'd laid out on her bed and changed into them. She quickly put on her boots, grabbed Ketsueki Sakenomi from its hiding place and tucked the pictures of her future self into the pocket of her hoodie before picking up the Ten Year Bazooka.

Azami smiled grimly. "Time to save the world," with that quiet declaration, she, held up the bazooka to her head then added almost as an afterthought, "again."

She pulled the trigger.

* * *

Azami looked around at the ruined part of Namimori she had appeared in. Her ears picked up the sound of people moving swiftly towards her.

'I could take care of them with either a sword or with fire," she debated between those two options even as she turned around to look at the darkly dressed group of people.

"You know what sounds fun?" she asked them in an almost conversational tone, clicking her fingers and engulfing her hands in fire. "Burning you to a crisp."

They never really stood a chance. A fire took root beneath them, inside of them, around them and she helped it grow. She struck the flint, the match and let it all burn away. It was strangely cathartic. Her paranoia had dulled and she was able to think clearly again.

Azami turned in the direction she could feel Sesshomaru coming from. She watched him appear from one of the side streets, his green servant following close behind.

'Stoic as ever, I see,' she thought idly, her quick eyes taking in the inu daiyōkai for the first time in about five hundred years. 'He hasn't changed much, that's the same armour he was wearing in the Feudal era, just modernized slightly.'

The silent stare off was broken by the silver haired man. "Cat."

"Dog," She returned, an amused smirk on her face as she looked at the man.

"Hnn."

"Still a stoic bastard I see," Azami commented blithely, her head tilted slightly to the side.

Predictably, the green imp took offence to that. "How dare you insult Lord Sesshomaru!"

"I think we have more important things to worry about then me insulting Sesshomaru, wouldn't you agree Jaken?" she asked, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.

The imp's face grew solemn, he understood what she meant. A quick nod of the head proved that.

"Well," she clapped her hands together decisively. "Time to figure out how to prevent the end of the Vongola and life as we know it."

* * *

It didn't take much effort to follow her nose and find the underground Vongola hideout. Sesshomaru had left with Jaken to take care of things in his territory. He might have said something about making sure Rin's descendant was safe but she hadn't been paying attention.

Azami walked through the corridors until she came to a stop in front of a door, behind which she could hear voices.

She didn't care about being polite and knocking, she threw the door open and stood with her hands on her hips. The inhabitants stare back at her.

"Azami-nee!" her brother, wrapped in bandages, exclaimed and started to stand up.

"Sit down, Tsuna," there was a slight hint of an order in her tone as she crossed the room to give him a quick hug.

He awkwardly hugged her back with his one good arm and, if he hugged her a little tighter than she hugged him, neither of them say anything.

"Tell me what is going on," Azami asked as soon as she had pulled away from him. "Please," she tacked on as an afterthought.

* * *

As soon as the door to her room swung shut, she collapsed backwards against it and slid down to the floor. There's bile boiling in the pit of her stomach and Azami doesn't think that she'd be able to keep it down if it came to that.

Saisho, Ni-ban, Shippo and Tsuki are all dead and she thinks she might have figured out who had been leaving the gifts in her room.

The first one had been a white orchid. The name Byakuran meant "white orchid". Could it have been a coincidence? Highly unlikely, all things considered.

Azami breathed in and out, in and out, until it no longer felt like she was about to throw up. That would have been pathetic. She'd faced worse things than someone trying to take over the world being obsessed with her.

She could do this.

* * *

"Byakuran-sama?"

"Hmm?" the man turned away from the window to look at the White Spell member who had just entered his office.

"I have a report. Tsunami Sawada was spotted in Namimori by members of Black Spell 5th. When they attempted to engage with her, they were burned alive."

"As was to be expected. Tsunami, even on her own, is one of the strongest allies Vongola has," Byakuran turned back to the window. "You are dismissed."

He waited until the messenger had left before chuckling quietly to himself. "So you are now here, precious thing. I wonder how you reacted to the gifts I left for you."

Byakuran turned away from the window at last and looked over at the photo of Azami he had on his desk. "Knowing you, you probably became paranoid when you couldn't find out who did it," a slightly insane smile spread across his face. "You'll find out soon, precious thing. I can assure you of that."

* * *

 **Lmao, Byakuran finally shows up for real, Azami is paranoid and intelligent enough to connect the dots and I wound up cutting a character from this rewrite entirely.**

 **Fun times.**

 **Guess who wrote a thing somewhat based on Azami X Byakuran without using names and posted it to my Tumblr? This jerk, that's who!**


	9. Azami is Bloodthirsty Who Knew?

It seemed that Tsuna's crush, Kyoko Sasagawa, had gone missing.

Azami had never paid much attention to either the girl or his crush so she didn't really care that much. However, Kyoko was important to her brother, and Azami loved her brother enough to try and help those he cared about.

Which was how she found herself crouched in a back alley, waiting for Black Spell members to move on.

'This would be a lot easier if I could get away with using Ketsueki Sakenomi to its full potential without destroying most of the town,' her eyes tracked their movements, flicking back and forth between the ones closest to her hiding place.

'Oh well. There's more than one way to get through them. More than one way to kill them too'.

With that particular thought in mind, she darted from her hiding place, in full view of those who are after all members of the Vongola, even if their only connection is by blood. Blood can be one of the strongest things, after all.

There were only four of them and Azami supposed she should feel a little bad about how they will meet their ends, but the bloodlust that roars to life inside of her for the first time in a long while drives all thoughts of pity or mercy away from her.

She turned and, with a flick of her fingers, pulls a steady stream of water from the surrounding atmosphere. It swayed to the left and to the right in midair before she sent it flowing straight at them. The water solidified into a blade of ice moments before it would have hit one of the darkly dressed males. It still kept going, impaling him.

Azami dodged a vengeful attack from one of the dead man's companions and jumped up into the air. Their mistake was trying to track her movements - when they looked up, they were momentarily blinded by the midday sun.

She spun in midair, kicking out two tongues of flame that knocked one of the men to the ground. He got off lightly with only a few fractured bones, maybe a slight concussion, and unconsciousness. For the time being at least.

The other two? They weren't so lucky.

Azami went after one of them, knocked him off his feet with a well timed sweep, and slammed a fire-wreathed fist into his face. He was probably luckier than the other one, he only survived because there was someone else to go after. He would never see his death coming.

She drew every molecule of water from the final one's body, watched his muscle mass shrink and shrink until he was nothing more than a skeleton, and released her control over the water, allowing it to splash across the pavement. He was almost dead with only enough energy to glare at her as she marched over to him.

Her fist found a place in his chest cavity and she dragged his heart out without flinching.

"All things considered, you really had it coming," her hands burst into twin balls of fire and she ignited all of the bodies, even those that were not dead.

If they scream, she does not hear them.

* * *

'Time spent living under a human guise has done little to dent her strength,' Sesshomaru noted to himself as he stepped out from the alleyway he had watched from.

"Cat," his voice was quiet but it carried. She already knew he was there anyway.

Azami turned to look at him. "Stalking me now are you, Dog?" her tone was somewhat teasing, at odds with the apathetic look on her face.

Sesshomaru chose not to answer that. "Your brother's cloud is currently fighting one of Black Spell's members."

"That promises to be entertaining," she responded mildly, glancing at her nails to make sure she hadn't chipped one of them during her fight. It wouldn't have been that big a deal if she had but she liked doing it. It helped her focus, as strange as it sounds.

"Hnn," the inu daiyōkai turned away from her and started to walk towards where he had seen the fight begin.

* * *

When they did show up there, the fight had already finished. The defeated form of a blond Black Spell proved Azami correct. It had been entertaining.

"Azami-nee," Tsuna was the one to acknowledge her, looking at Sesshomaru with curiosity.

"He's an old acquaintance of mine," was all Azami said, vaguely gesturing in the silver-haired man's direction. The silver-haired man who promptly turned and started to walk off on his own.

Azami wasn't fazed by that at all. "He's also an asshole."

* * *

"So," Tsuna began before trailing off for a minute, slightly nervous about asking the questions he wanted to, even if the person he was asking was his sister. "How do you know this Sesshomaru?"

Azami looked up from her book and shrugged. "We met during the Feudal era. I was travelling with Inuyasha, his younger brother, and lets just say that the two of them never really got along. Inuyasha was given the sword, Tessaiga, by their father. Sesshomaru believed he should've had it and he spent a lot of time trying to take it. Of course, his hatred towards Inuyasha might also have been because of the fact his mother was human."

"Why would that have been a problem?"

"Pride. Humans were looked down upon by yōkai, still are to be honest, and hanyōs were looked down upon by both of them. You can imagine how human and yōkai relationships were viewed."

"...Do you care about that? Now, I mean?"

"Nah. Humans can be strong in their own way," Azami dismissed, reaching over to ruffle her brother's hair. "Just depends on what you define 'strong' by."

* * *

"Members of Black Spell 3rd engaged with Tsunami Sawada."

"Oh? And how did that go, Sho-chan?"

"None of them were left alive. Only two were killed initially but she set all of them on fire."

"Azami-chan has always been bloodthirsty. It's one of her most endearing traits."

Shochi chose not to comment on that.

* * *

 **Can you tell I cannot write fight scenes? Fyi, Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra are lifesavers for writing any of these scenes.**


	10. Apologies and Oh My God Uroko-jū Exists

San-ban, the only surviving member of the kamaitachi trio in the current future, and Taiyō, the remaining head spy, had travelled from the hidden temple they had turned into a back-up HQ all those years ago.

"I'm sorry," was the only thing Azami said to Taiyō. His reply was a shaky inhale of breath and a sharp nod before he wandered off to wait for San-ban to be done...or cry. Both were possibilities.

San-ban, who had quietly watched the incredibly short exchange, hugged her as soon as she made it clear that he could. "It's been hard for him," his voice was muffled against her shoulder, "they were thinking about getting married and starting a family. Furostomi has been run off her feet making sure everyone gets checked out as soon as they come back, Saisho didn't make it because he refused to be looked at, and Chiya's been getting increasingly hard to calm down."

Azami didn't say anything whilst he told her this, she just rubbed circles onto his back. Finally, he pulled away and swiped a hand over his eyes.

"Anyway," he continued as if he hadn't done that, "the future you left a message in your office. I brought it with me."

From one of his pockets, he produced a flash drive and handed it to her.

"Thank you," Azami said, holding it loosely in her hand.

"Do you want me to call the factions here? They could be helpful."

Azami looked at him thoughtfully for a moment before shaking her head. "No."

"Are you sure, Azami-sama?"

"Yes."

"Well then," San-ban rocked backwards on his heels, staring slightly at her hair. "You know," he began to comment offhandedly, "the older you cut her hair into a bob. I'm not used to seeing you with long hair anymore."

He shook his head, chuckling slightly. "Taiyo will soon be getting antsy so I think it's best that i leave now."

Azami nodded slightly. "It was good to see you, San-ban."

"Same with you, Azami-sama."

* * *

Sequestered in the room that was acting as hers during the time they were in the future, Azami plugged the flash drive into a laptop and clicked on the video.

Immediately, a woman who looked exactly like her but with short hair popped up onto the screen.

"If you are watching this, Azami of the past, then everything is going exactly as planned. However, there a few things that I will tell only you. Byakuran, the leader of the Millefiore famiglia, has something of an obsession with you, with us. He claims it's love but…" here, she shrugged, "it really isn't. I didn't start out hating him and I still don't think I hate him, despite what he did to Shippo, but he must be stopped. At any cost," her face turned thoughtful for a moment. "Though, for a monster, I suppose he was cute. "

The video cut off, leaving Azami to sputter at her future self's words.

'Though,' she thought to herself, 'that is totally something I would say to myself. It's nice to know I didn't change that much. Besides, if you can't be uncomfortably blunt with yourself, who can you be uncomfortably blunt with?'

For a moment, she stared at the laptop before sighing and putting it down.

Azami ran her hand through her hair for a moment before she stopped. She'd had long hair for most of her life, maybe it was time to change.

* * *

"Why is your hair short?" was the first thing out of Tsuna's mouth as soon as he saw his sister.

"Good morning to you too," Azami grumbled under her breath, bonking him lightly on the head as she walked past him. "It's short because i cut it. Do i need a reason to do that?"

"No…" Tsuna muttered, watching her. "But you've had long hair for years. Why the sudden decision to change it?"

"I don't know. I just felt like changing it," she tugged at her hair for a second before shrugging. "Let the others know that I'll be back in a few hours. I've got something to do."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Don't worry about me, Tsuna. I'll be fine," Azami waved a hand in farewell and walked off.

* * *

What had Azami been planning when she left the hidden Vongola base?

Even she didn't really know. At most, she knew that she had wanted to get away from her brother and his people for a bit.

There was the vague idea that it might be good for her to try and track down Sesshomaru, just to open up a line of communication between the two of them, but she didn't really feel like doing that.

Maybe that was why she found herself perched on top of a building, looking down at several Black Spell members.

'It's a wonder they've managed to survive as long as they have,' she thought, tapping her nails against the roof, 'their powers of observation are terrible.'

Azami debated between attacking them and leaving alone before settling on the latter. It wouldn't do to make a habit of attacking people left and right, they'd start to expect it.

A memory made itself known and she grabbed it with both hands. 'Uroko-jū would be aggravated by their lack of awareness. He would say that there's no fun in attacking someone when they're unaware, the dumb lizard.'

Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. 'Uroko-jū! How could I have forgotten about him?'

Azami stood up and ran to the other side of the roof. She jumped down and continued to run back towards the secret HQ, cursing slightly under her breath but remembering to duck out of sight.

'Note to self, look for Uroko-jū when I get back to the past,' she didn't contemplate for a moment that she might die in the future, that wasn't an option.

* * *

 **So, I fell off the edge of the earth whilst trying to write this chapter. Sorry not sorry, I guess.**

 **I dunno when the next chapter will come out but it'll probably involve a small time skip so we can get to the part where** **Shoichi's base thing is invaded cause I have dialogue that I want to use.**

 **Azami's realization that** **Uroko-jū exists is what happened to me when I remembered that I said he'd be mentioned earlier.**


	11. Shoichi Irie and a Plan Explained

Azami snuck back into the secret base, certain that she had missed nothing that was important to her. She figured that Tsuna and his Guardians would have to train for the battles that were coming their way which would leave her free to do her own thing.

Like track down Sesshomaru. That could be an idea. He was more likely to show up somewhen during the final battle against Byakuran though. If they got that far anyway.

"Or," she mused quietly to herself as she watched the skin on her arm turn to water followed by the muscles and bone and blood underneath. "I could work on this. Elemental transmutation of my own body tissue. I'd almost forgotten I could do this."

With a little effort, she made part of the water shift into a dolphin and jump out of the rest of the liquid in the same way as the actual animal.

* * *

Days quickly turned into weeks. Weeks that she spent carefully practising her control over the elements in the comfort of her room. Weeks that she spent carefully going over her plans for when they returned to their actual time. She knew she had to find Uroko-jū, if only to satisfy her curiosity as to what became of him after they split up.

Eventually, the time came for them to invade the Merone base where Shoichi Irie was. Azami waited for Tsuna and his people to set off before heading there herself.

Perhaps it was a foolish idea, safety in numbers and all that, but Azami knew she was more than capable of taking on many humans at once.

She would be fine.

* * *

It was rather easy to break into the base all things considered. All she had to do was locate one of the ventilation ducts and crawl through.

There was the slight issue of having to deal with the possibility of being hit by lasers but she dealt with that quickly.

For a short while, there was no need for her to hide herself as no members of the Millefiore Famiglia came anywhere near the corridors that she was walking through.

She wasn't surprised though when several White Spell members ran to block her off.

Ketsueki Sakenomi was drawn and in her hand before they had time to blink. Azami began to channel her yōki into the blade. It wasn't, however, to use it in the same way Sesshomaru and Inuyasha had used the yōki they channelled into their swords. Ketsueki Sakenomi wasn't capable of attacks like the Kaze no Kizu, otherwise known as Wind Scar, which was why Azami preferred to use her own strength and elemental attacks in the fights she usually had with other yōkai instead of her sword. However, in fights against humans, Ketsueki Sakenomi was useful as a conduit for yōki which could be used for one simple thing.

Making use of her superior speed, Azami flashed from in front of them to behind them, jaki, demonic aura that always surrounded Ketsueki Sakenomi, visibly trailing off her sword as she did so.

She didn't look back as the powerful demonic energy started to destroy them. If they did manage to survive it, they would be far too weak to do anything.

Ketsueki Sakenomi couldn't be used like Tessaiga or Tenseiga, that was true. But it could be used to infect many lesser beings with yōki and ultimately cause them to become corrupted or be destroyed.

* * *

It didn't take long for her to come across the scenes of what seemed to have been a battle between a Mosca and someone else. Her nose told her that the other combatant had been Tsunayoshi, along with someone who smelled faintly of oil and sugar.

Her ears picked up the sound of someone coming that way and she jumped up onto one of the large pipes that ran along the wall. She ducked down into the shadows and waited.

Three White Spell members walked down, one expressing surprise at the damage that had been caused and one explaining just what had caused it to the rookie. The third one remained quiet until he was contacted by someone, probably Shoichi or someone with him, and told the others to shut up.

Whoever they were wanted them to find Tsuna and his Vongola ring.

She remained where she was until they had walked out of sight and hearing range before dropping down on the ground.

'I suppose I should go looking for my brother… but on the other hand… nah. I think I'll go look for the others. Tsuna will be fine...probably.'

* * *

"Well, look what we have here, boys. A pretty little thing wandering around, just waiting to be found."

Azami looked at the owner of the voice with some amusement and a lot of disgust. "Kotengu. So Byakuran even managed to get yōkai on his side," she rocked back on her heels, a bland smile on her face. "I must say that I'm surprised, considering your usual hatred of humans."

"Oi! How would you know that we're kotengu?!"

The apparent ringleader's surprise was expected. Had she not been a daiyōkai herself, Azami knew she would have fallen for the illusions they had donned to appear more human. Still, their apparent unawareness of the fact she herself was a yōkai meant something was up.

"Well," she drawled out teasingly, looking at them with molten gold eyes (which really should have been their first clue that she wasn't human), "other than the fact you just confirmed what I said by blurting out what I said you were…"

She smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. It revealed her unusually sharp canine teeth. Her demonic aura started to leak into the room, causing them all to startle slightly. "A daiyōkai isn't as easily fooled as a human. Nor as easily fooled as a normal yōkai, it seems."

They bristled at the implied insult and, without a word, started to advance on her.

"Fools," she muttered, loud enough for them to hear, and slashed her hand sideways in a jerky motion.

They stopped, twisting against the invisible force that held them captive in front of her. It would do them no good.

"Cease your struggling," she commanded, walking closer to them at a calm, measured pace. "You cannot escape your own blood, no matter how you try."

"Who the fuck are you?" one of them growled, the ringleader having seemingly fallen silent.

"Me? Tsunami Sawada. You surely know who that is, considering your boss is after my brother," Azami smiled at them. "You might know me by the name Kurenai no majo, though that was more something humans called me. I prefer the name Yōso no Azami myself."

Real fear started to creep on to their faces. "Impossible! You died!"

"It didn't stick, as you can tell," Azami brought one of her hands up in a claw grip position. "I can't say the same for you though."

She clenched her fist and watched them struggle as their hearts were squished. She only unclenched her hand when she was sure that they were dead.

* * *

By the time she got to the room where Shoichi had hidden himself, two of the Cervello were on the ground, unconscious.

"I get the feeling I missed something interesting," she commented, ignoring the various exclamations at her sudden appearance.

"The interesting part has just begun," Reborn spoke up. When he got into the base, she didn't know. Quite frankly, she wasn't interested either.

Azami listened to Shoichi explain the plan that the Future Tsuna had agreed to, eyes closed in thought.

"So that's why she said 'everything is going exactly as planned'," Azami muttered under her breath, remembering the words of her future self.

* * *

"Before you go, Tsunayoshi-kun," Shoichi began, looking at the future Decimo. "There is something you should know. Byakuran is in love with your sister, obsessed really, to the point of being willing to kidnap her."

Tsuna blinked as he processed that little bit of information. "Whilst I know I should be worried about the implications of that...I know Azami-nee. I've seen her send people physically more intimidating than her running with a glare. I've seen her set fire to people with no trouble at all. If Byakuran wants her that much, she's more than strong enough to deal with him."

"Aw," Azami cooed, startling Tsuna with her sudden appearance. "That's sweet of you to say, Tsuna."

"I don't see how!" Tsuna yelled, more than a little freaked out by the tone of voice his sister was using.

"Chill, Tsuna," she told him, smirking at his reaction.

A short while later, they were in the past.

* * *

 **...I have no excuse for why this took so long. Sorry.**

 **Note: Technically it would be possible for Ketsueki Sakenomi to do basically the same thing as Tenseiga or Tessaiga but that really doesn't fit the story. In the original it did but that was taken away. Maybe Azami simply can't be bothered to come up with any attacks that require her sword, I don't know, but I do know I like how I wrote that part.**

 **Does anyone else get Romeo and Juliet vibes from Azami and Byakuran's relationship or is that just me after like 6 cups of coffee?**

 **Next update will come...somewhen. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next year. It will involve Azami locating Uroko-jū for sure but anything other than that is up in the air.**

 **See ya**


	12. Dragon Daiyōkai and Some Introspection

"San-ban, Ni-ban and Saisho, I need you in my office. Now."

The brothers looked at each other with questioning looks on their faces. They couldn't think of anything they had done in recent months to warrant her barking orders at them. Of course, there was the chance that whatever was behind her ordering them to create a backup HQ in the first place was stressing her out more than she would like to admit.

They walked in single file into the office, stopping in front of the desk.

Azami wasn't behind it, she was looking out the window and showed no signs of reacting to their entrance.

"In addition to moving the Hantei base should the need for that arise, there is something else I want you to do," she half turned to look at them. "Seek out any information on the dragon daiyōkai, Uroko-jū, that you can. If you manage to find him alive, inform him of who sent you."

"Any reason why you want us to find him now?" Saisho asked.

"Curiosity. I never did find out what happened to him after we parted ways," Azami walked over to her desk and sat down. "As I will be returning to the future after whatever it is Tsuna needs to do regarding the Arcobaleno is done and have nothing to do in the meantime, I will start off the search myself. If I don't manage to find him before leaving, you will continue the search."

"Yes, Azami-sama."

"You are dismissed," she said with a wave of her hand, watching them go with a slightly thoughtful look on her face.

'I wonder if I should call Skull. He'll be coming to Namimori anyway but… I'll call him. He'll want to know about my plan to locate lizard breath, if only so he can avoid him.'

* * *

'To be perfectly honest, I should've checked here first,' Azami mused as she stared up at the cave opening. 'Not here specifically but here as in what was once his territory. Uroko-jū always was a bit of a homebody.'

She stepped forward, pushing aside the curtain of leaves that had grown downwards with one hand, and lit her other hand on fire. Not because she needed it, her eyes were adept at seeing in the dark, but as a way of letting Uroko-jū know that someone was coming in. She knew better than to surprise a dragon.

In the main chamber of the cave, various treasures were piled high and pressed up against the walls. She could clearly recognize several items that she had helped him to acquire.

Lying curled up in a manner similar to that of a cat was a hulking, lizard-like figure. Covered in smooth scales that faded from deep red to black, with massive talons and a tail with a sword-like edge, Uroko-jū cut a somewhat imposing figure even when asleep. Azami supposed that if she hadn't known his true nature, even she would have been intimidated by him.

As it was, she was mildly annoyed that he hadn't bothered to wake up.

"Oi! Oversized salamander! Wake up!"

For a moment, he did nothing. Then a thin stream of smoke blew out of his nostrils and his large red eyes cracked open.

"Well… I'll be…" he grunted, raising his head up and opening his eyes fully. "To what do I owe the visit?"

"Curiosity. I wanted to see if you'd been killed already," Azami walked closer and sat down with her legs criss crossed in front of him.

"Cheeky brat," he grumbled, shifting easily into a more human appearance. Standing in front of her with dark hair, tanned skin and red eyes, Azami saw more than a few traits that matched those of the Varia boss.

"God, don't tell me one of your descendants is in the mafia," she muttered under her breath.

"It's highly likely," Uroko-jū dropped down in front of her. "Aika married some foreign bastard. I'm sure they must have had children."

"That would explain so much," Azami sighed and rocked backwards staring at some point behind his head in thought. After a few minutes she nodded to herself and refocused her attention on him.

"All joking aside, I did have an actual reason for coming to find you."

"I'm listening."

"Do you want the long version or the short version?" she asked, one eyebrow raised and a small smirk on her face.

"The long version. You have a bad habit of cutting important information from your short versions," Uroko-jū said wryly.

Azami laughed and nodded. "Fair enough."

She quickly smoothed her face into a neutral expression and quietened her laughter. "The long version starts like this. I forced myself to reincarnate, nine lives and all that, and ended up in the body of a girl distantly related to the first mafia boss of the Vongola Famiglia. My younger brother is in line to become the Decimo of that famiglia. There was a incident with someone named Xanxus trying to prove his claim to the title as the son of Vongola Nono, he's the one who I think is related to you, but he has no actual blood relation to the Nono. That has no actual relevance to why I came to find you but anyway. Ten years from now, a man named Byakuran Gesso will try to take over the world. As a result of that, my brother and, I assume, myself will be killed."

"So, you came here to ask me to join up with them in the future?" Uroko-jū guessed.

"No."

"What?" Uroko-jū's eyes widened in surprise.

"I don't know why, call it instinct, but I know that Tsuna will be able to defeat him without the help of a dragon daiyōkai," Azami shrugged and stood up. "No, why I came to find you was simply to extend a line of communication between my group, the Hantei, and you. A subordinate of mine, a kamaitachi, will be along shortly to deliver a phone to you."

"You were never one to rely purely on instinct," Uroko-jū noted, "what changed?"

""I don't know," Azami shrugged. "I would assume it's because I was born into a family with a famed intuition, at least in the case of Giotto."

"Heh, life sure has changed for you, hasn't it?"

"Yeah… It has."

* * *

"So… your dragon friend is now gonna be around and aware of what's going on."

"Possibly. He could just go back to sleeping. Uroko-jū was always more suited for life on the battlefield and even the mafia isn't that good of a substitute for it."

"That's true," Skull nodded. "Did you ever find out who was leaving those gifts for you?"

Azami paused in what she was doing and stared hard at her hands. How did she answer that? How did she tell her friend that the man who had him killed, the man who her future self must have had some feelings for that weren't hate, was the one who left them?

"Azami?" the purple haired baby looked at her with slight worry on his face. "You okay?"

"...Yeah," she finally said, looking away from her hand to look at him. "Why do you ask?"

"You started staring at your hand and ignored my attempts at getting your attention after I asked you whether you'd found who left the stuff in your room."

"Not specifically. I have a fair idea though," she couldn't, wouldn't, tell him the truth. Not yet at least.

"Ah… Okay then."

* * *

Azami stared up at the Namimori Shrine with a pensive expression on her face. The Ten Year Bazooka was located there. With it, she would be able to send herself forward in time to a world almost on the edge of being taken over by a megalomaniac whose plans required the Vongola rings and the Arcobaleno pacifiers, and whose desire for her probably lead to her death. How, she didn't know and she didn't want to. Going there would mean being locked in another battle to save the world. Hadn't she been there and done that already?

Shouldn't there be like a quota or something for this kind of thing, like 'oh you've been involved in one save the world showdown, time for you to go live out your life in anonymity and never have to deal with this shit again?'

'I might be on the verge of losing it,' Azami thought, a somewhat amused smile on her face.

The future, or fate, was looking straight at her, she could tell. She didn't like its expression at all.

* * *

 **The last line there was inspired by a quote in the book Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett.**

 **I intended to have Azami actually go back to the future but I think this ending to the chapter fits better. The next chapter will almost certainly take a while but it shouldn't take as long as the last update. The fact I'm watching the anime should increase the production rate in theory but...eh.**


	13. Thinking and Choices

Azami did _not_ almost jump out of her skin when the hologram of Byakuran appeared, _thank you very much_. She did, however, immediately go tense and rest a hand on her sword.

'Objectively, and from a purely physical point of view, I can understand why my future self had some kind of feelings for him,' she mused to herself, half listening to what he was saying but more focused on observing him. 'Other than that… Fuck knows.'

The hologram partially turned his head to look at her as if he could sense her staring at him. She sincerely hoped that wasn't the case and that he had actually intended to look at her anyway, as bizarre as that sounded in her head. The wide smile he'd been wearing turned into a smug smirk and he…winked at her.

'Please don't do that. It's fucking creepy considering everything,' she said internally, glaring at him in annoyance.

He took amusement in that, the prick, before he resumed talking.

* * *

Azami was almost concerned when she heard Tsuna's shrill shriek of surprise, 'almost' being the key word here considering she'd grown up with and was used to him making sounds like that, until she saw one of the people he'd shrieked at.

An unimpressed expression slid onto her face as she stared at the familiar looking dragon, albeit shrunk. "Didn't I tell you not to get involved with this shit, undersized salamander?"

He puffed up like a cat at the insult, his wings stood up and everything. "Yeah… I conveniently forgot about that part."

"You don't say," she grumbled, turning to face the other person that had shown up. "Jaken. Sesshomaru couldn't tear himself away from whatever it was he had to do so he sent you, I see."

The imp bristled and would probably have launched into a rant about she shouldn't dishonor Lord Sesshomaru's name or something boring like that had Reborn not interrupted with a question.

"You know these people, Tsunami?"

"Oh yeah. We go way back."

"How far back?"

"To like, the Feudal era. Even longer in Uroko-jū's case," she said with a nod to indicate who exactly Uroko-jū was. The tiny dragon raised a hand in a lazy wave.

"Wait…" Tsuna spun around and stared at her. "How old are you exactly?!"

"Don't ya know it's rude to ask a lady her age?" Azami raised an eyebrow and pointedly ignored Uroko-jū's disbelieving snort. "Lets just say you could add up the ages of everyone in this base together and I'd still be older than you."

"She's older than me and I'm at least two thousand years old," Uroko-jū helpfully chimed in. Well, it wasn't really helpful because Gokudera finally realized what was actually happening and started screaming something about UMAs.

Azami decided that she didn't want to know.

* * *

"Why did you come here anyway?" Azami asked Jaken after the whole questioning session about her age was over and they'd been free to leave. "I know it can't actually be because you wanted to see me, considering you hate me and humans in general, so Sesshomaru must want something."

"Lord Sesshomaru," the small green yōkai began with a sharp glare aimed at her for not showing his master the proper amount of respect, "wished to inform you that he would only become involved when the final battle between you people and the human trying to take over the world begins."

"Byakuran," she said, resting her chin on her knuckles. "His name is Byakuran."

"That isn't important!" the imp exploded, waving his hands around in the exaggerated way of his that he always did when he was annoyed.

Azami threw her head back and laughed for a long moment before calming down. "I'll be sure to send a messenger when I know for certain where the final battle will be taking place."

"See that you do," Jaken said stiffly.

"You would think the fact that he already knows about the shit going down and the fact he's already made several trips to Namimori would mean that he's technically already involved," Uroko-jū mused in the silence that followed that brief exchange.

"It's Sesshomaru. Who knows what goes on his brain."

* * *

They had two weeks to kill until the game of Chance. Two weeks to kill before they would be facing the real Funeral Wreaths. Two weeks to kill before they would be facing Byakuran in person.

Honestly, at this point in time, she just needed to stop thinking of it being 'two weeks to _kill_ ' instead of something like 'two weeks to waste' or 'two weeks to train'. Really, anything that didn't mention death would be a good alternative.

That was Tsuna's view anyway.

Azami hadn't bothered to pay any attention to what else he said. There was an extremely high chance of him dying after all… cause, you know, he was like fourteen with a limited amount of combat experience which, when compared to Byakuran and the fact he was in his twenties with a larger amount of experience, really didn't look good. It didn't look good anyway but whatever.

Uroko-jū had remained in his tiny dragon form, she suspected it was because people (read: women) found him cute when he was like that, and tended to stay wherever food may be so she was free to do whatever she wanted.

Which lead to her leaning against one of the walls in her room, molding fire into shapes. She supposed she could try and force Uroko-jū into sparring with her but that would require getting up and finding him. She was content with her thoughts and her fire for the time being.

She shifted it into a dragon, then a fox, then a dog and then finally into a cat.

Really though, what _did_ her future self feel for Byakuran?

Love? Highly unlikely if she'd only found out about him _after_ he'd put his plans for world domination into play. _He'd_ obviously known about her beforehand, whether because his present self found out from his future self or because he'd found out by some other way that she didn't know about.

Hate? Also highly unlikely because of the way she'd spoken about him in the video she'd left behind. There must have been some anger there, obviously, because of what he did to Skull but there'd been no actual hatred on her face or in her voice.

Azami blinked at the flames that had shifted into a replication of Byakuran's face somewhen between her contemplation about whether or not her future self was actually attracted to his stupid face. Which was cute, _apparently._

There was attraction there, she decided, snuffing out the flame with a sigh. Physical attraction and that was it.

She didn't want to consider a reality where there was anything like an interest in their personalities and hobbies between the two of them.

* * *

They would be heading to the 'battle-ground' soon, she mused to herself as she waited for the mode of transport that they would be using to be revealed, Uroko-jū perched on her shoulder like a parrot.

Not immediately after it was revealed. They had a few more days to go before then and she had a few more things that she wanted to practise. Such as creating minions out of fire, earth, water or air to spy on people for her.

It was all well and good waiting for others to find out but she was more interested in doing it herself. Kinda. She didn't like feeling reliant on anyone other than herself when it came to information.

She also didn't like the niggling voice in the back of her head that told her she wanted to find out more about Byakuran and so she tried to ignore it.

* * *

"Do ya wonder how many of them will still be alive after all this is over?" Uroko-jū mused, perched on Azami's shoulder, as he watched Tsuna and his guardians.

"Who knows. They're all children, babies really, compared to you and me," Azami shrugged slightly, fiddling with the cuff of her suit jacket. "I'd like to think that none of them will but… it would unrealistic to expect that to be the case."

"Mmm, yeah," Uroko-jū nodded slightly before a sly look crossed his face. "How d'ya feel about actually coming face to face with your _secret admirer_?"

She aimed a look of disgust at him and clicked her tongue in irritation. "Kindly stop joking about that before I encase you in ice."

"You actually managed to learn how to do that?" Uroko-jū questioned, ignoring her threat with ease.

"Yep."

The two daiyōkai ceased their muttered conversation when Byakuran's head appeared above them. Uroko-jū opened his mouth, probably to make another joke about the white haired man's apparent obsession with Azami now that he was kind of there, but a sideways glare from her caused him to shut his mouth again.

The corners of Azami's mouth smoothed out into a firm line as she listened to Byakuran talk. It remained that way even when Hibari and Yamamoto arrived. It remained that way even when Tsuna and his guardians managed to produce double the amount of Fiamma Volts.

"They have a chance," she decided, causing Uroko-jū to launch himself off her shoulder and hover in front of her face to try and decipher her expression, "however small it may be, they have a chance."

"You believe that?"

"I have to, don't I?" she asked him, watching Tsuna pick where Choice would take place. "I have to believe that Tsuna will be strong enough to take down Byakuran with the help of his famiglia. If he isn't… Well, I guess we'll have to figure that out if it happens."

* * *

 **Does anyone else get the feeling that Azami is one interaction with Byakuran away from having a meltdown? Of the setting things on fire variety? No? Just me? Okay.**

 **Uroko-jū is along for moral support when he's actually there. He'll probably go off to do his own thing since he has no actual intention of getting involved in the fights. Show up and watch? Yes. Make the effort to actually deal with Byakuran himself? Nah.**

 **And this is more aimed at LunarCatNinja, since they consistently review and I consistently reply to them, but if you have reviewed and I haven't responded, chances are I actually tried to but Fanfiction decided to be a little bitch and make it so people never get that PM (I assume from past dealings with it). I dont know what that's about but anyway.**

 **Azami will probably work out what Torikabuto actually is really quickly cause of the, ya know, demonic mask thing. Also the sacrificed priest thing.**


	14. Theories and Eye Contact

She could have done without being pulled up into the sky like something of an alien abduction movie if she was being perfectly honest but she had to admit it got them there quickly.

Unlike most of the others who either wound up lying or sitting on the floor, Azami landed in a crouch that she quickly stood out of. Uroko-jū had avoided flying off of her by clinging to a chunk of her now chin length hair. It was weird, not having long hair, but it was a lot more practical.

"Skyscrapers? Really? Your brother couldn't have picked a more interesting location?" Uroko-jū grumbled under his breath, twisting his head to the left and to the right to look around.

"How do you even know what skyscrapers are? You've been asleep for the past two centuries," Azami's mouth barely moved as she spoke, eyes looking straight at Byakuran's group. "And besides, you're not participating so why do you care?"

"Yeah… but I still like to be entertained," Uroko-jū complained, not answering the first question she'd asked him. She would say that he'd actually whined but she didn't think he'd appreciate that.

"They're a bunch of kids!" exclaimed one of the Funeral Wreaths. That would be the Rain, Azami decided after a moment of thought.

She raised an eyebrow in what might have been surprise when the Rain girl shifted her arm to water.

'Well, there's a surprise. She's good,' she mused, a spark of amusement in her eyes. 'But,' she clicked the fingers of the hand that was hidden behind her back and watched as the water turned to ice, 'not good enough.'

"If I didn't believe you'd managed to learn how to do that before, I do now," Uroko-jū commented as he watched the girl start to panic, obviously not knowing what to do. "What'll happen if she tries to shatter it?"

"She'll lose an arm," Azami clicked her fingers again and the ice stopped at the girl's elbow. "I wouldn't worry though. The ice will melt easily and if she has any actual control over water, she should be able to reform her arm."

Byakuran seemed to know exactly what she had done if the way he was looking at her was any indication. Of course, that could have just been his normal way of looking at her. Azami smiled, bright and wide and _fake_ , at the man. He smirked, amusement and interest and something she really didn't want to analyse clear to see on his face.

No one, not even his Funeral Wreaths, noticed. Or, if they did, they didn't say anything. She preferred the first idea, it meant she could almost pretend that the exchange hadn't happened.

Uroko-jū looked between the two of them, a suspicious frown on his face. 'Something's going on there,' he decided, 'I don't know how no one else noticed that but… something's up.'

He rearranged himself into a ball, similar to how a cat curled up when it wanted to sleep, and tapped a claw against his chin. 'It seems Azami has more feelings about Byakuran than she would like to admit.'

* * *

"Did you get the feeling there was something...off about one of the Funeral Wreaths?" Uroko-jū asked after the participants for Choice had been chosen and the ones that weren't had retreated to the spectators area.

"Which one? The Sun didn't strike me as being particularly sane," Azami was leant against the wall, half paying attention to Uroko-jū, half lost in her own thoughts.

"He wasn't who I meant but you have a point. No, I meant the Mist. Torikabuto."

"In what way?" she asked.

"There was an aura about him. It felt like jaki but there was a decent amount of spiritual power there as well," Uroko-jū leapt off her shoulder and hovered in front of her face, "like the amounts that lower level priest or priestesses have. Nowhere near the amount that your friend… what was her name?"

"Kagome," Azami supplied.

"Right, Kagome. Nowhere near the amount she had."

"Hmm," she tapped her fingers against the wall behind her in thought, "that mask he was wearing… was the demonic aura more concentrated there?"

"I think so."

"I wonder..." Azami looked away from him and up towards the television that showed the battle happening outside, "I suppose it's possible that he's wearing a demonic mask…"

"That doesn't explain why he also feels like a priest though…"

"I know."

"They could have forced a priest to wear it? I don't know why any priest worth their salt would put it on willingly but…"

"That seems like something _they_ would do."

A thoughtful silence fell between them as they pondered their small theory. The silence was broken by Uroko-jū muttering "I'm sure he rigged it" under his breath.

"How so?" Azami asked, pushing herself away from the wall and walking towards the window. She held out her hand with her palm outstretched for Uroko-jū to perch on.

"Well…" he held up one of his clawed hands and started to tick points off on them, "he was the one who had the thing they used to pick the participants so it isn't out of this world to think that he wouldn't know how to tamper with it. There's also the way he introduced the Sun. I don't know about you but 'zombie' makes me think that it'll be a lot harder to kill him then it will be to kill Shoichi."

"You have a point," Azami fell back into one of the seats and crossed one leg over the other. "In any case, there's nothing _we_ can do about it without risking Tsuna losing by default. So…" she trailed off with a slight smirk.

"So…what?" Uroko-jū looked at her face suspiciously. "You're planning something."

"Why don't we play a match of solitaire? You're as bored as I am waiting for this to be over," a flick of her hand caused a solitaire board made out of fire to form in front of them.

"You're probably going to win but okay," Uroko-jū flew over to hover on the other side.

"Nothing's for certain, Uroko-jū," she chided, looking at the board with a calculating gaze, "you should know that."

* * *

"Do you know," Azami said conversationally as she watched Uroko-jū have his turn, "I just thought of something."

"What?" he glared at her, frustrated by what he saw as an attempt by her to distract him and therefore win.

"If Torikabuto is indeed wearing a demonic mask and is a mist, don't you think his illusions would be strengthened? As in, to the point of being on the same level as kitsune illusions?"

Uroko-jū paused mid-flight as he moved one of the fire marbles. "It would make sense," he put down the marble and watched as she waved the one he'd gotten rid of away in a cloud of smoke. "If that is the case, the illusions would be a lot harder to break out of."

"Tsuna will be in for a lot of trouble if that is what's going on," Azami smiled ever so slightly.

"You don't seem concerned," Uroko-jū pointed out, surveying the board with a raised brow, "I'd have thought, considering your increased interest in the wellbeing of certain humans, that you would be."

"Sometimes, you have to let things play out on their own without interfering."

* * *

"He's rather good at discarding his pawns, don't you think?" Uroko-jū noted casually, blinking lazily at the scene of Saru's, or Genkishi's, death at the hands of Kikyo.

"Mmm hmm. Almost as good as Naraku, wouldn't you say?" Azami agreed just as casually as she caused the solitaire board to disappear with a wave of her hand.

"Oh definitely," Uroko-jū nodded.

The two of them side-eyed each other before looking away, laughing slightly beneath their hands and ignoring the looks they were getting that clearly said that the humans in the room thought they were crazy.

They probably weren't wrong.

* * *

"What did I say?!" Uroko-jū twisted his head to the side, raising what would have been an eyebrow on his human face at Azami's face.

"Huh," was her monosyllabic reaction to Daisy relighting the target on his chest. "Seems you were right after all, snake skin."

"Of course I was right," the small dragon huffed, "when have I ever been wrong?"

"Do you want the list? It was in the hundreds the last I checked," Azami turned away from the television and began to walk towards the exit.

"Those were about unimportant things," Uroko-jū dismissed, jumping off her shoulder and flying level with her face. "When have I ever been wrong about important stuff?"

"Many times," she said flatly.

* * *

'A limitless amount of parallel worlds, huh?' Azami looked away from the conversation happening between Shoichi and Tsuna, facing the sun as she mulled over the information they were being told. 'And Byakuran has knowledge from all of them.'

"What a mess we've found ourselves in," she said out loud, sighing at the end of her statement.

* * *

"To think… he'd drug a kid just to fulfil his own goals," Uroko-jū landed on the floor beside Azami, flexing his wings to keep them from cramping up.

"I've compared Byakuran to Naraku several times. He did something along the same lines," Azami watched Tsuna as he said he'd protect Yuni. "Killed a boy and manipulated his sister into thinking someone else had done it then brought the boy back to life with a Shikon jewel shard."

Uroko-jū stretched and leapt up to her shoulder in one movement. "Of course, in this case, he manipulated her into joining their two familigias."

"Yes," Azami nodded in agreement.

"Do you think we should help them?" he asked blithely, watching with some curiosity as the other Vongola Mist, Murkuro, appeared.

"I think they've got it handled," Azami locked eyes with Byakuran as she turned to walk away. It didn't unnerve her as it had earlier. She supposed that meant she was getting used to the idea that he had been, and still probably was, obsessed with her. She hoped he saw the amusement in her eyes and knew she was laughing at the fact Yuni had slipped out of his fingers.

"We're gonna have a chat about Byakuran, I hope you know that."

She didn't verbally reply at first, just reached up with one hand and freezing his body in a ball of ice, leaving his head free. "I told you that if you kept making comments about him, I'd freeze you. One more word and you'll be completely frozen solid."

* * *

 **In other news, I hate the original chapters for the Choice arc. Actually, I hate all of the original chapters after the future arc began.**

 **The aim of the British version of Solitaire is to clear a board of marbles but leave one in the middle (in the version I play, you just have to have only one marble left). A match, not that that is really a thing, is where people take turns trying to clear the board and the one that gets rid of the most wins. E.g. player 1 tries to clear the board and has 7 left over. Player 2 then tries to clear the board and has 4 left over. Player 2 therefore wins.**

 **The Arcobaleno trials will involve Azami taking a short vacation to see either Sesshomaru or someone else.**

 **Ugh, this could've been out sooner but I wanted to get the entirety of the Choice arc out of the way. It was surprisingly hard to write Yuni's bit.**

 **Will I rewrite the sequel? To be honest, probably not. I might work the revelation of Skull being a kitsune into one of the final chapters or I might do an epilogue. That's a long way away though.**

 **There was going to be a bit with Byakuran at the end but that got cut. There will, however, be a scene with Azami having a one on one conversation with him before the final battle. And just more scenes between the two of them overall.**

 **To be honest, the author's notes have just turned into me rambling.**


	15. The End is Nigh (I Can Tell)

They landed back in Namimori just as gracefully as they left it. That is, to say, not very. Still, Azami supposed it could be worse. At least she wound up hanging from a tree branch in a somewhat dignified way, unlike Tsuna.

Uroko-jū jumped off her shoulder and onto the branch. She wasn't entirely sure how he'd managed to stay there in the first place and she wasn't really interested in knowing.

Azami let go of the tree branch and fell the short distance to the ground. Uroko-jū, in turn, jumped onto her head and then down onto the ground beside her.

"Well," he began, going from the size of a small lizard to the size of a large dog and then beginning the shift to a human shape, "that was an experience."

"You said it," Azami muttered in agreement, walking over towards the entrance to the Namimori shrine. Uroko-jū began following her once he was almost entirely in his more human-like form.

"Why are you even in your human form? You haven't been the entire time I've been in the future," she asked, turning her face to look at him.

"I needed to stretch," he explained. "Being stuck in such a small form isn't as easy on my back as it once was."

"My god, you sound like such an old man," Azami rolled her eyes at him and turned back to face her brother.

"That would be because I am!" Uroko-jū retorted, shaking his head behind her back. "How come, despite the fact you're even older than I am, you aren't feeling the effects of your age?"

"The same reason I still looked like a late teenager before I was reborn, I suppose. I aged better than you."

"No shit," he grumbled under his breath.

Tsuna was, rather predictably she might add, freaking out over what they needed to. Gokudera joined him in freaking out as soon as he saw Uroko-jū which was kind of understandable given their current situation.

That didn't mean she didn't find it annoying.

"For fucks sake, it isn't like he wasn't there before," Azami muttered, rolling her eyes at the silver haired teenager.

"You mean _he_ was the tiny lizard?!" Tsuna took a break from worrying over what they had to do next to freak out over the fact that Uroko-jū was no longer small or physically draconic.

"Dragon," Uroko-jū corrected, choosing not to let his irritation at being called a lizard out. That wouldn't be good for the young Vongola Decimo's nerves at all.

"And yes, he was," Azami drawled, seeing as Uroko-jū couldn't be bothered to actually answer the damn question.

* * *

Eventually it was decided that they would head back to the secret Vongola base. Personally, Azami thought that might've be a bad idea. Surely it wasn't too outside the realm of possibility for Byakuran to be able to find their location, considering he did manage to hack the system.

But what did she know? If he, or any of the Funeral Wreaths, showed up then so be it. They would have to fight and that was that.

Uroko-jū, bless his simple heart, seemed rather pleased at the idea of them showing up. What they had seen during the Choice battle had convinced him that they would at least give him a good fight which, along with wanting to finally win at least one game against her, was one of his only wants in life.

Azami would make some comment about him being simple minded if she felt like getting into a fight but she didn't. She felt like thinking.

So that was what she did.

She thought about Byakuran and his obsession with her. She thought about his plans for world domination. She thought about the outcome of the Choice battle. She thought about Uni and the Giglio Nero. She thought about why the girl reminded her, in the vaguest way, of Kagome. She thought about the Arcobaleno and Skull who was Shippo and how he was dead in this future.

She thought about many things. Until her head started to hurt and she started to feel even more irritable than usual.

Then the Funeral Wreaths attacked the base and she had no reason to think anymore because they needed to get the fuck out of there.

Uroko-jū, now firmly back in his tiny dragon form, complained until she froze his body in ice and threatened to do the same to his head.

* * *

Azami glared at Karahira, otherwise known as Checkerface, when no one else was looking. If he hadn't needed to keep up appearances, she was sure he would have glared right back at her.

'Seems he hasn't forgotten what happened the last time we met,' she smiled with her teeth clear to see, taking amusement in the way he watched the fire dancing across her fingertips with wariness. 'I suppose I did manage to burn him pretty badly after all.'

She doesn't act though. He's doing this for his own reasons, not out of the kindness of his heart and she knows that, but he is protecting her brother so she'll deal with him later.

* * *

The Funeral Wreaths find them pretty quickly all things considered.

Torikabuto, the Mist who she's now sure is tied in some way to the mask he wears, undergoes some kind of transformation to become a giant moth.

She...isn't impressed. Even when it's stated that whoever looks at his wings will lose their grip on reality. She supposed that was because she had looked at them for a few seconds when he'd first transformed and been completely unaffected.

Uroko-jū huffed and joined her in sitting on the side-lines, watching the fight go down. "It would be easy to defeat them, you know."

"Perhaps," she looked up to the sky, a thoughtful frown pulling at her face, "but it isn't our place to intervene in these battles unless strictly necessary.

"How do you figure that?" the dragon stretched his wings and snapped his jaws in irritation.

A faint smile took the place of the frown. "Because this is Tsuna's story. This is the Vongola's story. We are not part of the Vongola, despite the fact I was reborn as the Decimo's sister. We are merely observers."

"You sound very sure of that."

"I am." Azami watched the Funeral Wreaths retreat with the defeated Torikabuto.

"Come on, snakeskin. They'll be off to find a new hiding place, I reckon, and we don't want to be left behind."

* * *

 **Urgh, so this took a while. I started to read the manga cause I thought it would be quicker than watching the anime. It is but I'm only reading the future arc at the moment so... yeah.**

 **Anyway, the fact that I've also came to the realisation that Azami, as a character, has changed as I've grown older might also have contributed to how long it took. I see her as more mischievous, more go with the flow... Actually some of her personality is more similar to Byakuran's now that I think about it...huh.**

 **She's still apathetic, in a weird way, and still more than capable of being serious when she needs to be but... I don't know. I guess as she got older, she started to be more about having fun, doing whatever she felt like doing whilst living life by her own rules. I like that personality for her more now.**

 **The idea is for me to continue writing this rewrite, with Azami still having the same personality as she originally did, and then... I guess I might think about writing another story featuring Azami with her newer personality. It might not be posted on here though but I'm still thinking about it.**

 **Thoughts are welcomed and appreciated.**


	16. Night Talks and I Skipped an Arc

Azami waited until she thought everyone else was asleep before making a move towards the outskirts of the camp.

"You're heading to see Byakuran, aren't you?"

She didn't flinch at the sound of Uroko-jū's voice, nor did she turn around. She smiled slightly, even though he couldn't see.

"How could you tell?" she asked, eyes locked in the direction she knew Byakuran and his Funeral Wreaths had camped out in.

"You've been deep in thought ever since the game of Choice," he said mildly, drifting slightly closer. "And you kept looking in this specific direction. You're not the only daiyōkai here, you know. I can smell them as well."

"Heh, I suppose the fact you've known me for years also helped."

"It might have," he agreed, drifting close enough to land on her shoulder if he wanted to; he didn't though. He dropped a claw there for a moment before removing it.

"I hope you know what you're doing," was all he said before he flew back towards the tree he'd chosen to sleep in.

Azami looked up at the sky, a slightly sad smile on her face. 'You shouldn't say things like that, Uroko-jū, cause the truth is I'm just winging it now. If you knew that, would you be disappointed in me?'

* * *

She crouched, still and silent, on one of the many branches coming off one of the many trees large enough to support her weight without it being uncomfortable.

Byakuran knew where she was; the brief sight of her before she'd taken off towards the place she was now had made sure of that. She knew he would come. It had been written on his face.

'God, why am I doing this?' she asked herself, not for the first time. She knew it was an incredibly bad idea, in more ways than one, and she'd always prided herself on being smart, or at least being able to think plans through before doing them.

'I guess it really is true. Curiosity does indeed kill the-'

"I must say I'm surprised, Azami-chan," a familiar, though she didn't want to admit it, voice cut through her train of thought. She looked down at him, watched as he smiled up at her. If someone who didn't know better had been watching, perhaps they would have called it angelic; she knew better.

His smile was sharp and mischievous; his eyes were shaped like downturned crescents. He reminded her of a fox, she decided.

Shippō would be insulted if he knew that she had thought that about the one who'd orchestrated his demise, she just knew it.

"Oh? And why is that, Bya-ku-ran?" she enunciated every syllable of his name as she shifted enough to change her position from being crouched to being sat on the branch, one leg over the other. She didn't feel nervous, not that she would call what she'd been feeling before 'nerves', now that he was in front of her.

"With the way you've been acting, I never would have thought that you would want to meet me alone," his whining tone of voice and the way he was pouting made her think he was mocking her.

"What can I say, Bya-kun," she said sweetly, playfully, with a mocking smile. "I'm just full of surprises."

"Mhm. You know Tsunayoshi won't be able to defeat me tomorrow," he said, his smile a little more twisted than before. She hadn't thought that was possible.

"Perhaps," Azami drawled slowly, resting her head on her hand. "But, then again, stranger things have happened."

"You don't really believe that though," he said, twisted smile shifting into a confident smirk.

Azami flicked her eyes to the side for a moment in a move that was almost guilty before returning her full attention to him, her mocking smile shifting into a smirk.

"It isn't wise to be cocky, Byakuran. You should know that," she chided tauntingly before looking at her wrist in a move similar to how someone would check their wristwatch. She wasn't wearing a watch.

"Well, it's been fun," she drawled, standing up but still maintaining her balance, "having this talk with you. But it really is time that I must be going. Ciao!"

She blew him a kiss and took off into the forest, leaving him to stare after her.

* * *

Dawn broke over the forest, revealing the three Funeral Wreaths heading towards where Tsuna and his allies had camped out. They didn't know that they were already prepared, Azami supposed.

They also didn't know that two pairs of eyes were watching them.

"They're unobservant, don't you think?" Uroko-jū tilted his head to the side as he watched them, red eyes following their movements.

"Mhm," Azami nodded slowly in agreement, "though I suppose that could be because they don't expect anyone to be awake now. They're preparing to attack whilst their guard is supposedly down so that they'll be easier to defeat. It would be a smart plan, in theory, if they hadn't made plans of their own."

"Fools," he grunted in disgust, flexing his wings slightly in irritation. He was starting to tire of the fact they were taking the role of observers; she didn't know much longer she would be able to keep him in line.

They were silent for several minutes as they stopped watching the Funeral Wreaths and took off towards another area around the campsite.

"You never did say what you spoke to Byakuran about," Uroko-jū muttered when they came to a stop, head dropping down to rest on her shoulder.

"Nothing much," Azami murmured in response. She didn't turn her head to the side to look at him; she just kept staring straight on. "And I'm not trying to deflect your questions, you know. We really didn't talk about much at all."

"You looked troubled when you returned," Uroko-jū said slowly, almost unsurely. "That doesn't make it seem like you didn't talk about much."

"That isn't important," she dismissed as she came to a stop. Gokudera, Lal and Gamma had just attacked Zakuro.

The Funeral Wreaths that had been taken out previously had been defeated easily, almost too easily all things considered, so she wasn't entirely surprised when it turned out that their attacks did little to stop Zakuro.

"Should we intervene?" her dragon companion perched on her shoulder, watching the fight with a lust for battle clear in his eyes.

Azami pursed her lips in thought. They should, they really should, because two of the three were injured and that wasn't a fair fight at all, but something told her to stay where she was.

"No," she said finally. "We'll wait to see if they can defeat him on their own."

"And if they can't?"

"Then we'll intervene."

* * *

 **Can I, like, just say that I should never be allowed to come up with AUs for the main OC in this fanfiction ever again?**

 **I'm over 5000 words into the first chapter of the fanfiction idea I rambled about slightly in the last chapter and, whilst that is an achievement and I'm proud of myself, I know I'll never write 5000 + words for a chapter ever again. I fully blame Millie for this because SHE is the one who dared me to rewrite this in the first place.**

 **That story will be posted somewhen after this fanfiction is finished.**

 **Tbh, Azami turns out to be such a troll that I doubt anyone else but Byakuran would fit with her. Except maybe Reborn. Maybe.**

 **Also I'm aware that I skipped an arc (anime only but whatever) but it wasn't that important. Everything played out as it did in canon, more or less, just with Azami there in the background.**

 **Check out my Tumblr for vague rambling out about fanfiction and other, supposedly, fun stuff (it's the same name there as it is here).**

 **God, I'm tired.**


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